Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg Sr. built his first piano in 1825 in Seesen, Germany. By 1839 he had exhibited his pianos in state fairs, establishing his reputation as a piano builder before emigrating to the USA with his wife and children in 1850.
The Steineweg family decided to “Americanize” their name to Steinway when they arrived in New York. After first working for other companies, learning the piano business in America, he and his sons established Steinway & Sons in 1853.
In 1866 Steinway Hall opened to become the center of New York culture until Carnegie Hall was unveiled in 1891. In 1880 Steinway built a factory in Hamburg, Germany. Within a short time, their innovative design patents that included instruments with stronger frames, more powerful scales and sound, and responsive actions, revolutionized the piano. By about the 1880s, their grand piano design was essentially what the modern piano is to this day.
By the 1960s, the fourth generation of the Steinway family had neither any heirs willing to run the business, nor the capital required for modernization and new equipment. They eventually sold the company to CBS Inc. in 1972. CBS realized that it was out of their realm of expertise to run and operate a piano business, so they sold the company in 1985 to an investment group that consisted of people with various backgrounds in marketing, management, finance and law who formed Steinway Musical Properties.
Ten years later in 1995, the company was sold again to Selmer Industries, a large manufacturer of brass and woodwind instruments, the combined company forming Steinway Musical Instruments Inc.
In 2013, the company was sold to billionaire John Paulson.
Steinway & Sons official website: www.steinway.com
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