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60-649: Originally the lecture theatre of the Marylebone Literary and Scientific Institution (1833–1869) and then the home of the Quebec Institute (1870–1878), the hall became synonymous with music concerts when it was acquired in 1878 by the American piano makers Steinway , as their first Steinway Hall in London. The Steinway Hall was then transformed in 1925 for the piano makers Grotrian-Steinweg and

120-464: A 125th anniversary Steinway limited edition grand piano was designed by Count Albrecht von Goertz . Until his death on September 18, 2008, at the age of 93, Henry Z. Steinway , the great-grandson of the Steinway founder, still worked for Steinway and put his signature on custom-made limited-edition pianos. At several public occasions, Henry Z. Steinway represented the Steinway family. He started at

180-469: A London building or structure is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Steinway Steinway & Sons , also known as Steinway ( / ˈ s t aɪ n w eɪ / ), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in New York City by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to a move to

240-500: A beautiful attribute of the world-renowned firm of Steinway & Sons. ...Owing to my ignorance of the mechanism of piano construction I can but praise the magnificent result in the volume and quality of sound." In 1890, Steinway received its first royal warrant , granted by Queen Victoria . The following year the patrons of Steinway included the Prince of Wales and other members of royalty and nobility. In subsequent years Steinway

300-528: A commemorative Steinway limited edition grand piano. In 2005, Steinway celebrated the 125th anniversary of the establishment of its factory in Hamburg, Germany. The celebration featured a concert at the Laeiszhalle concert hall in Hamburg with performances by Vladimir and Vovka Ashkenazy, Lang Lang , and Detlef Kraus . 1,800 people from 33 countries attended the concert. As part of the celebration,

360-529: A greater range of preferences. Seesen Seesen is a town and municipality in the district of Goslar , in Lower Saxony , Germany . It is situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz mountain range, approx. 20 km (12 mi) west of Goslar . The Saxon settlement of Sehusa was first mentioned in a 974 deed issued by Emperor Otto II and Chancellor Willigis , from 1235 on it belonged to

420-569: A higher offer, $ 512 million, to take the company private. The Steinway Musical Instruments board recommended that shareholders accept this, and in September 2013 Paulson announced completion of the acquisition. After the 2008 economic downturn , Steinway grand piano sales fell by half, and 30 percent of the union employees were laid off at the New York factory between August 2008 and November 2009. Sales were down 21 percent in 2009 in

480-529: A hundred pianos per year left the factory. In the later years of the war, the company was ordered to give up all the prepared and dried wood their lumber yard held for war production. In an air raid over Hamburg, several Allied bombs hit the factory and nearly destroyed it. After the war, Steinway restored the Hamburg factory with help from the Marshall Plan . In the late 1960s, Steinway brought countersuit against Grotrian-Steinweg to stop them from using

540-516: A judge had been paid directly, although Barron states that the judge was bribed through an intermediary, the pianist Frederic Boscovitz. According to freelancer Isabel Wolff, William Steinway admitted in his diary that under his leadership the New York City arm of the company bribed judges at trade fairs to favor Steinway pianos. According to musicologist Donald W. Fostle, it is untrue that Steinway repeatedly bribed judges at trade fairs, and in

600-528: A larger factory in New York, and later opening an additional factory in Hamburg , Germany. The New York factory, in the borough of Queens , supplies the Americas, and the factory in Hamburg supplies the rest of the world. Steinway is a prominent piano company, known for its high quality and for inventions within the area of piano development. Steinway has been granted 139 patents in piano making, with

660-608: A line of art case pianos, designed by artists. In 1903, the 100,000th Steinway grand piano was given as a gift to the White House ; it was decorated by the artist Thomas Wilmer Dewing . The 100,000th Steinway grand piano was replaced in 1938 by the 300,000th, which remains in use in the White House. The piano is normally placed in the largest room of the White House, the East Room . Later, Steinway diversified into

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720-590: A piano maker. A year later, demand was such that the company moved to larger premises at 82–88 Walker Street. It was not until 1864 that the family anglicized their name from Steinweg to Steinway . By the 1860s, Steinway had built and moved into a factory at Park Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Street (the present site of the Seagram Building ) where it covered a whole block. With a workforce of 350 men, production increased from 500 to nearly 1,800 pianos per year. The employees were mostly German immigrants and

780-520: A preference for pianos from Steinway's Hamburg factory over those made in New York, or vice versa. Emanuel Ax , concert pianist and piano teacher at the Juilliard School , has said that "... the differences have more to do with individual instruments than with where they were made." Larry Fine , American piano technician and author of The Piano Book , considers Hamburg Steinways to be of higher quality than those from New York. In 2010,

840-399: A three-day concert series with performances by Peter Cincotti , Art Garfunkel , Herbie Hancock , Ben Heppner , Ahmad Jamal , Ramsey Lewis , Randy Newman , Roger Williams , Nancy Wilson , Yundi Li and Eroica Trio , among others. The first concert featured classical music, the second jazz, and the third pop. As part of the 150th anniversary, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld created

900-534: A worldwide "piano bank" from which performing pianists, especially Steinway Artists , can select a Steinway piano with the touch and tonal characteristics they prefer for use in a certain concert, recording, or tour. Steinway prepares, tunes, and delivers the piano of the performer's choice to the designated concert hall or recording studio at the performer's expense. The "piano bank" consists of approximately 250 Steinway pianos valued collectively at $ 12.5 million in 2019. Some pianists and technicians have expressed

960-561: Is named after the company. In 1876, Steinway participated in the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The competition among piano makers principally involved Steinway, Chickering , and Weber . According to journalist James Barron 's account of Steinway's participation in the competition, the company was able to secure success by bribing one of the judges. William Steinway denied to the exposition's organizers that

1020-562: Is now the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City. Steinway Village was built as its own town, and included a new factory (still used today) with its own foundry and sawmill, houses for employees, kindergarten, lending library, post office, volunteer fire department, and parks. Steinway Village later became part of Long Island City . Steinway Street , one of the major streets in the Astoria and Long Island City neighborhoods of Queens,

1080-465: Is simply their size (which is indicated by their model letter), which is also one of the most important indicators of their relative prices. Steinway pianos are also sold in the secondary market. The price of a used Steinway can vary tremendously, depending on the model (size), age, condition, and the quality of any restoration work that has been done. Additionally, Steinway offers certified pre-owned pianos, using Steinway-approved parts. Steinway makes

1140-529: The Fibonacci spiral and Macassar ebony veneer. It took 6,000 hours of work over 4 years to make, and was priced at $ 2.4 million. As of early 2021, Paulson & Co. remains the ultimate parent of Steinway & Sons, with head office at 1251 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Steinway pianos are sold by a worldwide network of around 200 authorized Steinway dealers who operate around 300 showrooms. The primary differentiation between Steinway models

1200-668: The New York Crystal Palace . From 1855 to 1862, Steinway pianos received 35 gold medals. More awards and recognitions followed, including three medals at the International Exposition of 1867 in Paris. The European part of the company held a royal warrant of appointment to Queen Elizabeth II . Steinway & Sons was named Company of the Year in 1996 by The Music Trades magazine. The award

1260-535: The Steinway & Sons brand, Steinway markets two other brands: Boston for the mid-level market and Essex for the entry-level market. Boston and Essex pianos are made using lower-cost components and labor. Pianos of these two brands, made with Steinway owned designs, are manufactured in Asia by suppliers. Steinway allows only its authorized Steinway dealers to carry new Boston and Essex pianos. Steinway maintains

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1320-628: The Welf dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg who had a castle erected. In 1428 Seesen received town privileges by Duke Otto II the One-Eyed of Brunswick-Göttingen . On 17 July 1810 in Seesen, Israel Jacobson dedicated the first synagogue to use some German in its liturgy and to employ an organ and a choir during prayer; that dedication date is celebrated in Reform Judaism worldwide as the founding of

1380-744: The 1820s from his house in Seesen , Germany. He made pianos under the Steinweg brand until he emigrated from Germany to America in 1850 with his wife and seven of his nine children. The eldest son, C. F. Theodor Steinweg , remained in Germany, and continued making the Steinweg brand of pianos, partnering with Friedrich Grotrian, a piano dealer, from 1856 to 1865. In 1853, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg founded Steinway & Sons. His first workshop in America

1440-527: The 300,000th Steinway piano from 1938, and the Sound of Harmony from 2008. The Alma-Tadema grand piano was designed by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and received great public acclaim when it was exhibited in London. The piano is made of ebony , inlaid with ivory and mother of pearl , with carved case, lid, and legs, and painted in the inside lid by artist Edward Poynter . It was bought by financier Henry Gurdon Marquand for his New York City mansion. In 1997, it

1500-615: The Allied Armies to build wooden gliders to convey troops behind enemy lines. Steinway could make few normal pianos, but built 2,436 special models called the Victory Vertical or G.I. Piano . It was a small piano that four men could lift, painted olive drab, gray, or blue, designed to be carried aboard ships or dropped by parachute from an airplane to bring music to the soldiers. The factory in Hamburg, Germany, could sell very few pianos during World War II. No more than

1560-688: The German manufacturer Kluge in Wuppertal, which supplies keyboards, in December 1998, and in November 1999 purchased the company that supplies its cast iron plates, O. S. Kelly Co. in Springfield, Ohio. A majority of the world's concert halls own at least one Steinway piano, and some (for example Carnegie Hall ) have model D-274s from both the Hamburg factory and the New York factory to satisfy

1620-729: The Grotrian-Steinweg brand – both the Hamburg-based Steinway factory and the Braunschweig-based Grotrian-Steinweg factory became known for making premium German pianos. Meanwhile, the 1880s saw the company embroiled in a series of labor disputes between the New York City factory's management and workers. Back then, industrialists faced labor strikes frequently. One dispute, in 1880, saw the company lead an industry-wide lockout of piano workers in New York City. In later disputes in

1680-400: The New York factory made some changes in its manufacturing processes and materials to improve quality, and Fine was invited to tour the factory to see some of the changes. Fine wrote in his Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer of Spring 2011 that the changes have improved the quality of the New York pianos, but that the Hamburg pianos are still of higher quality. Steinway has two sales areas:

1740-579: The Steinway family. Steinway's pianos won prizes at exhibitions in New York City, London, and Paris. By 1862, Steinway pianos had received more than 35 medals . Part of Steinway's early reputation arose from its successes in trade fairs. In 1865, the Steinway family sent a letter to C. F. Theodor Steinweg asking that he leave the German Steinweg factory (by then located in Braunschweig (Brunswick)) and travel to New York City to take over

1800-661: The United States. But sales began increasing a little in 2010, and they continued to improve the following year. In 2015, Steinway went back to the player piano industry from around the 1920s by introducing a digital player piano series called Spirio. The technology in the Spirio pianos was created in 2007 by Wayne Stahnke, an Austrian engineer who has previously made digital player piano systems for other piano companies, like Yamaha and Bösendorfer . Wayne Stahnke's technology, originally called Live Performance Model LX ,

1860-473: The art case piano line or the limited edition piano line. Steinway began creating art case pianos in 1857 and the making of art case pianos reached its peak in the late 19th century. Today, Steinway only builds art case pianos on rare occasions. The art case pianos are unique. Some of Steinway's most notable art case pianos are the Alma-Tadema grand piano from 1887, the 100,000th Steinway piano from 1903,

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1920-422: The company in 1937 after graduating from Harvard University . He was president of the company from 1956 to 1977 and was the last Steinway family member to be president of Steinway. In 1972, after a lengthy strike, a long-running financial struggle, high legal expenses, and a lack of business interest among some of the Steinway family members, the firm was sold to CBS . At that time, CBS owned many enterprises in

1980-573: The concert hall concertgoers had to pass through the showrooms, a way to advertise Steinway pianos. Sales increased by more than 400 pianos in 1867. Steinway Hall quickly became one of New York City's most prominent cultural centers, housing the New York Philharmonic for the next 25 years until Carnegie Hall opened in 1891. In 1925, the Steinway Hall on East 14th Street was closed and a new Steinway Hall on West 57th Street

2040-475: The construction of the piano. About a third of Steinway's patented inventions are under the name of C. F. Theodore Steinway. The Steinway factory in Hamburg was part laboratory, part factory. Much of the precision cutting and drilling machinery installed in the New York factory was tried in the Hamburg factory first. C. F. Theodore Steinway died in Braunschweig in 1889, having successfully competed against

2100-554: The decade, the company hired detectives to spy on its workers, paid police to take management's side in the dispute and to protect company property, and evicted strike leaders from company housing. In 1883, the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt wrote in a letter to Steinway: "...The new Steinway grand is a glorious masterpiece in power, sonority, singing quality, and perfect harmonic effects, affording delight even to my old piano-weary fingers. Ever continuing success remains

2160-449: The entertainment industry, including electric guitar and amplifier maker Fender , drum maker Rogers , electro-mechanical piano maker Rhodes , and the baseball team New York Yankees . CBS had plans to form a musical conglomerate that made and sold music in all forms and through all outlets, including records, radio, television, and musical instruments. This new conglomerate was evidently not as successful as CBS had expected, and Steinway

2220-607: The factory in New York supplies North and South America, and the one in Hamburg supplies the rest of the world. At all main Steinway showrooms across the world, customers can order pianos from either factory. The Hamburg and New York factories exchange parts and craftsmanship, and the parts for both factories come from the same places: Canadian maple is used for the rim, and the soundboards are made from Sitka spruce from Alaska . Both factories use similar crown parameters for their diaphragmatic soundboards. To maintain quality, Steinway has acquired some of its suppliers. Steinway bought

2280-493: The first in 1857. The company's share of the high-end grand piano market consistently exceeds 80 percent. The dominant position has been criticized, with some musicians and writers arguing that it has blocked innovation and led to a homogenization of the sound favored by pianists. Steinway pianos have received numerous awards. One of the first is a gold medal in 1855 at the American Institute Fair at

2340-447: The following models of pianos: The Hamburg factory makes seven models of grand pianos and two upright models. (The numerical portion of each model designation represents the length of the grand pianos and the height of the upright pianos, in centimetres ). The New York factory makes six models of grand pianos and one model of upright piano. (Steinway has previously made upright pianos in different dimensions.) The Model L (5’ 10 1⁄2" )

2400-593: The founding of the Steinway factory in Hamburg, Germany. In 1993, Steinway introduced a new line of specially designed cases, the Steinway Crown Jewel Collection . The collection consists of grand and upright pianos in Steinway's regular models, but instead of the traditional black finish the pianos of the Steinway Crown Jewel Collection have veneers of rare woods from around the world. The collection includes Macassar ebony , East Indian rosewood , and kewazinga bubinga . In addition to

2460-462: The grand piano and it was priced at €1.2 million. The piano was chosen for use at the Expo 2010 Shanghai China . Examples of limited edition pianos include The Steinway Limited Edition by Karl Lagerfeld created to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Steinway company in 2003, and the 125th-anniversary grand piano by Count Albrecht von Goertz designed to celebrate the 125th anniversary in 2005 of

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2520-621: The hall acquired its new name The Grotrian Hall, until its closure in 1938 when it was bought by Gordon Selfridge to extend the Selfridge's store. The Hall heard Rachmaninoff give the first English performances of his Prelude in C-sharp minor and one of Grieg's last performances was at the Grotrian Hall. 51°30′55″N 0°09′11″W  /  51.5154°N 0.1531°W  / 51.5154; -0.1531 This article about

2580-630: The leadership of the family firm due to the deaths of his brothers Henry and Charles from disease. C. F. Theodor Steinweg obeyed, selling his share of the German piano company to his partner Wilhelm Grotrian (son of Friedrich Grotrian) and two other workmen, Adolph Helfferich and H. G. W. Schulz. The German factory changed its name from C. F. Theodor Steinweg to Grotrian, Helfferich, Schulz, Th. Steinweg Nachf. (English: Grotrian, Helfferich, Schulz, successors to Th. Steinweg ), later shortened to Grotrian-Steinweg . In New York City, C. F. Theodor Steinweg anglicized his name to C. F. Theodore Steinway. During

2640-480: The manufacture of player pianos . Several systems such as the Welte-Mignon , Duo-Art , and Ampico were incorporated. During the 1920s, Steinway had been selling up to 6,000 pianos a year. In 1929, Steinway constructed one double- keyboard grand piano. It has 164 keys and 4 pedals . (In 2005, Steinway refurbished this instrument). During World War II, the Steinway factory in New York received orders from

2700-499: The name Steinweg on their pianos. Steinway won the case on appeal in 1975, forcing their competitor to use only the name Grotrian in the United States. The case set a precedent and established the concept of Initial Interest Confusion , in which consumers might be initially attracted to a similarly named but lesser-known brand because of the stronger brand's good reputation. In 1988, Steinway made its 500,000th piano. Designed by artist Wendell Castle , it carries inscriptions of

2760-661: The names of the 832 pianists and 90 ensembles on the Steinway Artist roster of 1987, including Van Cliburn , Vladimir Horowitz and Billy Joel . Six years later the company launched C. F. Theodore Steinway Academy for Concert Technicians , known simply as Steinway Academy , at Steinway's factory in Hamburg, Germany. There, experienced piano tuners and piano technicians from all over the world receive further training in piano tuning and maintenance . By 2000, Steinway had made its 550,000th piano. In 2003, Steinway celebrated its 150th anniversary at Carnegie Hall with

2820-591: The next 15 years of his leadership, he kept a home in Braunschweig and traveled often between Germany and the United States. Through 1870–80, William Steinway (born Wilhelm Steinweg, a son of Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg) established a company town after purchasing a home and its surrounding property from the widow of Benjamin Pike Jr., that would later bear his name as the Steinway Mansion . This company town would go on to become Steinway Village in what

2880-451: The nine Muses . The 100,000th Steinway piano was replaced in 1938 by the 300,000th Steinway piano. The gold gilded mahogany legs of the 300,000th piano are carved as eagles and are molded by sculptor Albert Stewart . The piano remains in use in the White House. The Sound of Harmony is decorated with inlays of 40 different woods, including the lid, which replicates artwork by Chinese painter Shi Qi. It took about four years to build

2940-420: The official language of the company was German. The pianos themselves underwent numerous substantial improvements through innovations made both at the Steinway factory and elsewhere in the industry based on emerging engineering and scientific research, including developments in the understanding of acoustics. Almost half of the company's 139 patented inventions were developed by the first and second generations of

3000-411: The one documented case it is unclear if Steinway were enmeshed, along with others, in bribery or were the target of attempted extortion. To reach European customers who wanted Steinway pianos, and to avoid high European import taxes, William Steinway and C. F. Theodore Steinway established a new piano factory in the free German city of Hamburg in 1880. The first address of Steinway's factory in Hamburg

3060-413: The sound or feel of the piano. The pianist is recorded by over 20 grey-scale optical sensors mounted behind the piano’s keyboard. With over 1000 levels of sensitivity and the ability to record 800 measurements/second, they sense the speed at which the hammers strike the strings. In 2024, the Spirio library contained more than 4,000 recordings. In 2015, Steinway made its 600,000th piano. The piano features

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3120-425: Was at Schanzenstraße in the western part of Hamburg, St. Pauli . C. F. Theodore Steinway became the head of the German factory, and William Steinway went back to the factory in New York. The two factories regularly exchanged experience about their patents and techniques despite the large distance between them, and they continue to do so today. C. F. Theodore Steinway was a talented inventor who made many improvements in

3180-434: Was given in recognition of Steinway's "overall performance, quality, value-added products, a well-executed promotional program and disciplined distribution which generated the most impressive results in the entire music industry." In addition to the Steinway piano line, Steinway markets two other, lower-priced brands of piano sold under the brand names Boston and Essex . Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg first made pianos in

3240-553: Was granted royal and imperial warrants from the rulers of Italy, Norway, Persia, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey. From 1864 to 1866, William Steinway , who is credited with establishing Steinway's success in marketing, oversaw the construction of Steinway Hall on East 14th Street in Manhattan, New York City. Steinway Hall had cost $ 200,000 to build. It included the second largest concert hall in New York City as well as showrooms for Steinway pianos. To enter

3300-492: Was in a small loft at the back of 85 Varick Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The first piano made by Steinway & Sons was given the number 483 because Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg had built 482 pianos in Germany. Number 483 was sold to a New York family for $ 500, and is now on display at the Städtisches Museum Seesen , the town in which Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg began his career as

3360-432: Was opened. In 2013, Steinway sold the Steinway Hall on West 57th Street for $ 46 million and moved out of the building at the end of 2014. In 2016, a new Steinway Hall opened on Sixth Avenue . A second Steinway Hall was opened in London in 1875. It was located first on Wigmore Street , in 1924 it moved to St. George Street, and later it moved to its current address on Marylebone Lane. In 1857, Steinway began to make

3420-573: Was produced and sold as a replacement for the Model O from 1922 to 2006. Designers and artists such as Karl Lagerfeld , Dakota Jackson , Walter Dorwin Teague , Arthur Blackmore, Joseph Burr Tiffany , Louis Comfort Tiffany , Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema , George Schastey , and the Herter Brothers have created original designs for Steinway pianos. These specially designed pianos fall under

3480-452: Was sold at Christie's auction house in London for $ 1.2 million, setting a price record for a piano sold at auction. It is now on display at the art museum Clark Art Institute . The 100,000th Steinway piano was given as a gift to the White House in 1903 and is made of cherry tree with gold leaf . It is decorated with coats of arms of the thirteen original states of America and painted by Thomas Dewing with dancing figures representing

3540-645: Was sold in 1985, along with classical and church organ maker Rodgers and flute and piccolo maker Gemeinhardt , to a group of Boston-area investors led by Robert and John P. Birmingham. In order to acquire Steinway, the investors founded the musical conglomerate Steinway Musical Properties. In 1995, Steinway Musical Properties was acquired by Selmer Industries to form the musical conglomerate Steinway Musical Instruments . In June 2013, private equity firm Kohlberg & Company offered to buy Steinway parent company Steinway Musical Instruments for $ 438 million. Two months later hedge fund Paulson & Co. Inc. made

3600-492: Was sold to Steinway in 2014 and re-branded as Spirio . In contrast to player pianos by other brands available at the time, a recording option was not originally available in the Steinway Spirio. In 2018, a recording option was made available in Steinway Spirio pianos, known as the Spirio r . The Spirio technology is referred to as "non-parasitic", meaning that the recording and playback equipment do not interfere with

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