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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 212.100.182.74 (talk) at 01:28, 26 January 2003 (More in depth article, should be renamed Steinway & Sons and could be more in depth yet, suggestions are appreciated). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Piano firm, currently based in New York and Germany.

The firm was originally based in Seesen, Germany and was founded in 1839 by Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg. They emigrated to America in 1850 and having arrived there changed their name in Steinway. The reason was for not being discriminated against because of their german origins. They were soon quite prosperous and would outlevel all other competitors in the years to come. The innovations introduced by Steinway would become a model for all other piano manufacturers in the world. As a result Steinway amassed quite a lot of prices.

Their succes currently mainly shows from their presence at the largest concert stages in the world. Almost all use Steinway exclusively. Their production has finally been outnumbered by other firms such as Yamaha but they are still considered the king of pianos. At the top of their succes in the 1920's they sold more than 6000 piano's a year. That number is now seriously dwarfed by for example Yamaha who sells around 300 000 piano's a year. Steinway is able to stand out against those competitors due to their long established reputation and the fact that almost every part of the piano is hand crafted contrary to Yamaha for example who mechanised it's entire production process.

After long financial woes the firm was finally sold to CBS in 1972. CBS sold Steinway to Steinway Musical Properties, Inc. which finally sold it to Selmer in 1995. Only one member of the Steinway family currently still works for Steinway.