Steck was a brand of pianos manufactured from 1857 to 1985. They were initially made by George Steck & Company before combining with the
Aeolian Company in 1904. The Aeolian Company went bankrupt in 1985. The Steck piano brand was then sold to
Sohmer & Co., and then to
America Sejung Corporation, which dissolved in 2013.
George Steck & Company had a performance hall known as Steck Hall, which was also the site of several notable speeches.
History
George Steck (July 13, 1829
or July 19, 1829March 31, 1897) was born in
Hesse-Kassel, Germany.
He grew up and studied pianomaking with Carl Scheel in
Cassel, Germany
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020. ...
. He moved to
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
in 1853 and opened a piano factory four years later as the firm Steck & Grupe.
The company was known as George Steck & Company by 1860. Another source lists him founding a new company in 1865, also known as Steck & Company.
The first factory was located on Twelfth Street and
Third Avenue
Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, as well as in the center portion of the Bronx. Its southern end is at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Square ...
. In 1859 the company moved to Walker Street and later to west
34th Street. Steck found success manufacturing pianos, and his models became standard school pianos across the United States. In 1870 he developed an iron frame for various pianos. The companies pianos were highly awarded at the
1873 Vienna World's Fair
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and
1876 Centennial Exposition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...
in Philadelphia. At Vienna, Steck won the "1st prize of merit for pianoforte". In 1884 he incorporated his company, giving stock to his employees. Steck retired from the company in 1887, and would spend the remainder of his life attempting to design a piano that was always in tune. Factories were also run in
Gotha, Germany.
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
reportedly composed the opera ''
Parsifal'' on a Steck piano. Steck died in 1897.
George Steck & Company combined with the
Aeolian Company in 1904. The corporation continued to make Steck pianos. In the 20th century Steck pianos were a trade name of the Aeolian Company.
By 1975 the pianos were manufactured in
East Rochester, New York. The Aeolian Company went out of business in 1985.
The Steck piano brand was then sold to
Sohmer & Co. and then to
America Sejung Corporation, which dissolved in 2013.
Steck Hall
Steck Hall was opened in 1865 on Clinton Place by Steck as a wareroom where musicians could perform on his piano. He moved into a larger building on
East 14th Street, also known as Steck Hall, in 1871.
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...
delivered his first
lecture on Abraham Lincoln in the hall on April 14, 1879.
José Martí spoke at the hall on January 24, 1880, his first speech in the United States.
See also
*
Pianola
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
* {{Cite book, last=, first=, url=http://archive.org/details/menwhoadvertisea00geor, title=The men who advertise : an account of successful advertisers, together with hints on the method of advertising, date=1870, publisher=George P. Rowell & Co., language=English, ref={{harvid, Men Who Advertise, 1870
External links
Virtual Piano Shop: Steck
Piano manufacturing companies of the United States