The Victory Vertical Piano Project was launched by pianist Garik Pedersen in November, 2017 to tell, in words and music, an amazing and little-known story about pianos that were built for the military during World War II.

About the Artist

Garik Pedersen first heard about the O.D.G.I. “Victory Vertical” pianos during an impromptu interview with Henry Z. Steinway in his office at Steinway Hall in New York City a few months before Mr. Steinway’s death in 2008.  Since then he has become increasingly fascinated with this incredible story.

Pedersen, a Steinway artist, has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States and in Europe, Canada, Central America, Taiwan and the Philippine Islands.  He has presented programs for the U.S. State Department, the National Federation of Music Clubs, Music Teachers National Association, the European Piano Teachers Association, Canadian Federation of Music Teachers Associations, the Royal Conservatory of Music, and on numerous public television and radio broadcasts. Currently a professor of piano at Eastern Michigan University, Dr. Pedersen has taught undergraduate and graduate students from many U.S. states and 13 other countries, producing prize winners in national and international—as well as numerous regional and state--competitions.

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Dr. Pedersen has appeared at numerous summer music festivals, including Cleveland’s International Music Festival, Spokane’s Musicfest Northwest, the World Piano Conference (Serbia), Tunghai Summer Music Festival (Taiwan), Michigan’s Interlochen and Blue Lake camps, and other music camps and festivals in Arizona, Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, Kentucky, and Indiana. A student of Wesley True at the University of Central Missouri, which awarded him its Distinguished Alumnus in Music in 2010, he was the final DMA piano student of John Simms at the University of Iowa, graduating in 1986.  Other major influences have been Gyorgy Sebok, Eugene Bossart, and Edwin E. Gordon.

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Garik is a past president of Michigan Music Teachers Association, which honored him with its Distinguished Service Award in 2016.  He received the Michigan Touchstone Award in 2017 in recognition of his “commitment to Michigan’s artistic excellence and his advocacy for the arts.”  He is listed in the 2018 edition of Who’s Who in Fine Arts Higher Education.