Steinway Hall Launches Local Search for Oldest Piano to Commemorate Steinway & Sons 150th Anniversary
DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 4, 2003
Steinway Hall, the exclusive Steinway & Sons dealer in North Texas, has joined the 150-year-old piano-maker in a nationwide search for the oldest Steinway grand and upright pianos to celebrate the company's sesquicentennial. The owner of the oldest Steinway may have it restored or replaced with a new Steinway piano comparable to his or her own.
Steinway Hall is conducting its own search for the oldest Steinway piano in North Texas and is treating its owner to a trip to New York City in June to attend a Carnegie Hall concert commemorating Steinway & Sons' anniversary. If the oldest Steinway in existence is in North Texas, then Steinway Hall will award the trip to the next most venerable piano in this region.
Considered the gold standard of pianos, Steinway & Sons - unlike some manufacturers who mass-produce pianos - has only crafted 563,000 of the instruments since its founding March 5, 1853, by Henry Engelhard Steinway and his sons in New York City.
"It is quite possible that the oldest Steinway piano made its way to Texas as settlers migrated West and as fine musical instruments passed from one generation to the next," said Danny Saliba, owner of Steinway Hall, one of only about 70 dealerships in the United States. "We'd love to be in Carnegie Hall this June when a Texan is announced as the owner of the historic piano."
Steinway owners have until May 1 to visit Steinway Hall showrooms in Dallas and Hurst to register their pianos in the search. In addition, anyone may visit Steinway Hall through April 15 to enter the "Musical Experience of a Lifetime" sweepstakes for a chance to win an all-expense-paid trip for two to the Carnegie Hall concerts, June 5-7. No purchase is necessary. Information is available by calling 214-526-1853 or 817-665-1853.
"Each Steinway piano ever produced has its own unique identity, personality and story," said Henry Z. Steinway, great-grandson of the founder. "We take great pleasure in tracing their rich, enduring history, from one that was hidden during the Civil War to those recently purchased by symphonies around the world."
Every Steinway piano has a serial number and information is kept on record, including the day it was completed, the style, the craftsman who worked on it, as well as to whom it was sold. The serial number is on the lower interior of the cast-iron plate.
For 150 years Steinway & Sons has set the world standard for piano quality and unsurpassed sound and response. Henry Steinway and his sons developed the modern piano, patenting some of the most significant technologies in the piano-making industry.
Legendary pianists such as Paderewski, Rachmaninoff, Rubinstein, Horowitz, as well as prominent contemporary pianists Van Cliburn, Alfred Brendel, Billy Taylor, Ramsey Lewis, Roger Williams, Billy Joel, Harry Connick Jr., Diana Krall and 1,300 others are counted among the roster of "Steinway Artists." Besides Cliburn, more than a dozen of the specially recognized pianists are North Texans, including Joaquin Achucarro, Joseph Banowetz, Fabio Bidini, Evelyn Chen, Monte Hill Davis, Jose Feghali and Mary Humm. More local Steinway Artists are Andrew Litton, Nielson & Young, John Owings, Pamela Mia Paul, Gustavo Romero, Alexei Sultanov, Vladimir Viardo, Adam Wodnicki, Danny Wright and Yi Wu.