After finishing middle school in 1971, David Klavins started an apprenticeship as a piano maker at the Wilhelm Schimmel Pianofortefabrik in Braunschweig.

While restoring and studying the architecture of grand pianos, Klavins became a critic of the traditional way to construct these instruments.

The piano player sits on the bench in the top floor, while the main part of the strings and the resonance body continue below his feet.

Due to this construction, the sounding board, responsible for the acoustic breadth of the instrument, is of double size of an ordinary concert grand piano.

The construction was inspired by building a portable upright piano similar to Model 370, which features an open design with no cabinet, and 64 individually stringed keys, altogether weighing at 100 kg.

In 1988 David Klavins moved to Latvia, the birth country of his parents, and worked in politics.

In July 2006 he traveled to Orange County, California, where he entered into a partnership with Liana Marie Sive, to pursue his piano research.

In October 2007 Sive and Klavins formally organized their research activities as PianoTectonics, Inc. Mr. Klavins was appointed Chief Operating Officer of the company, and for the next three years he engaged in intensive research that led to the development, among other things, of the technology for the Una Corda and M450 pianos.