The story
The forerunner of the company was a family of harpsichord makers in Thuringia, who later settled as instrument makers in Neustadt an der Orla. In 1820, the first piano and organ workshop was founded there by Johann Gottlieb Steingraeber. His nephew, Eduard Steingraeber, born in 1823, was apprenticed to him and during his years of wandering worked in Vienna, among other places, in the business of the piano maker Nannette Streicher, daughter of the well-known piano maker Johann Andreas Stein from Augsburg. Eduard Steingraeber accompanied the composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt on his concert tours as his piano tuner, which the latter regularly demolished during his concerts.
In 1852, Eduard Steingraeber founded the Steingraeber Pianoforte Fabrik in Bayreuth, where he produced his revolutionary first grand piano. In 1871, Steingraeber purchased the Liebhardtsche Palais and made it the company's headquarters. It is one of the few surviving rococo buildings in the city. Since then it has borne the name Steingraeber-Haus. The company quickly developed into the largest Bavarian piano factory.
Since the beginning of the Bayreuth Festival in 1876, Steingraeber has been a supplier for the festival and the Wagner family.
In 1881 Richard Wagner commissioned the company to build the so-called Grail Bell Piano, which is used in the temple scenes of Parsifal. In 1898, the new production facility in Dammallee was opened next to the Steingraeber Haus.The instruments are still manufactured there today.
In addition to Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt, famous guests of the house included Engelbert Humperdinck, Richard Strauss and Alfred Cortot. Liszt himself played music in the rococo hall of the house, which has been preserved in its original state to this day. This grand piano, the “Liszt Flügel”, is still used for concerts.
In 1907, Lilly Steingraeber became the first woman to head the company. In the first years after World War II, the company produced furniture and radio cases, employing 38 people and running at 40% capacity. The continuous production of grand pianos was interrupted from 1940 onwards and was resumed in 1972 under the management of Heinrich and Magdalene Schmidt.
Udo Schmidt-Steingraeber took over the company in 1980 following the death of his father. In the course of his management, extensive innovations and renewals of the brand took place. The Steingraeber Haus underwent structural changes and now houses several concert and selection halls, as well as artists' apartments, which are available to guests of the house. In addition, exhibits from the history of the brand are displayed in the instrument museum and an insight into the work of the piano makers is provided. On display are Eduard Steingraeber's Opus 1, as well as preserved original radio cases from the post-war period.
There is an extensive concert schedule with over one hundred events a year. Since 1988, this has included the Zeit für neue Musik (Time for New Music) festival, which was created in collaboration with the composer and pianist Helmut Bieler. The Steingraber Haus is a venue for the Franz Liszt Piano Competition Weimar-Bayreuth. As part of the Bayreuth Piano Festival initiated and hosted by Steingraeber, renowned artists such as Fazil Say, Edith Fischer, Martha Argerich, Alfred Brendel, Cyprien Katsaris, Daniil Olegovich Trifonov, and Elisabeth Leonskaja have performed at events in the Margravial Opera House, the Stadthalle Bayreuth, and in its own concert halls.
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Steingraeber grand and upright pianos are featured in concert halls around the world, including the Berliner Philharmonie, Malmö Opera, and La Scala in Milan.
Since 1982, Wagner adaptations by Uwe Hoppe and the Studiobühne Bayreuth have been performed in the inner courtyard and rococo garden of the Steingraeber Haus. Changing exhibitions are shown in the gallery. In addition to music and music-historical themes, artists such as Alfred Hrdlicka have also exhibited there.
Today, over 30 employees, including twelve piano makers, specialize in the traditional manufacture of quality pianos. For example, only solid wood and not particle board is ever used. Steingraeber even treats the surfaces of the piano case with shellac and wax instead of polyester and synthetic resin varnishes. Innovatively, a very light grand piano lid was designed that weighs only one-third of an ordinary lid when completely acoustically preserved. The company also trains piano and harpsichord builders.
Over 40,000 grand and upright pianos have been produced since the company was founded. The product line includes three models of upright pianos and five types of grand pianos. The company is represented annually at major piano and grand piano trade shows, including the NAMM Show.
Steingraeber was the official instrument partner for the film The Magic Flute produced by Roland Emmerich in 2022. The same year saw the opening of a permanent exhibition of the world's largest collection of photographs of Franz Liszt.
In connection with the continuation of the company by the seventh generation, Fanny and Alban Steingraeber, the brand logo was changed and the "& Söhne" was deleted.
From Wikipedia’s article on Steingraeber & Söhne, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4