Steinway Musical Instruments, Inc. is a worldwide musical instrument manufacturing and marketing conglomerate, based in

Astoria, New York Astoria is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough of Queens. Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to four other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City, Queens, Long Island C ...

, the United States. It was formed in a 1995 merger between the Selmer Industries and Steinway Musical Properties, the parent company of Steinway & Sons piano manufacturers. From 1996 to 2013, Steinway Musical Instruments was traded at the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

(NYSE) under the abbreviation LVB, for

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

. It was acquired by the Paulson & Co. private capital firm in 2013. Through acquisitions and mergers, the company has acquired a large number of musical instrument brand names and manufacturing facilities. Steinway Musical Instruments acquired the flute manufacturer Emerson in 1997, the piano keyboard maker Kluge in 1998, and the Steinway Hall in Manhattan in 1999. In 2000 it acquired the wind instrument manufacturer United Musical Instruments and in 2003 merged it with their subsidiary The Selmer Company to form the

Conn-Selmer Conn-Selmer, Inc. is an American manufacturer of musical instruments for concert bands, marching bands and orchestras. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Steinway Musical Instruments and was formed in 2003 by combining the Steinway properties, Th ...

subsidiary. In 2004 it acquired the wind instrument manufacturer Leblanc and placed it under Conn-Selmer. It now owns manufacturers of

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

s, brasswinds, woodwinds, strings, and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

. Brands produced under it include Steinway & Sons pianos, Bach Stradivarius trumpets, C.G. Conn French horns, Leblanc clarinets,

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

trombones, Ludwig drums, and Selmer saxophones and woodwinds. The company sells its products through a worldwide network of dealers to professional, amateur and student musicians, as well as orchestras and educational institutions, under dozens of different brand names. It holds exclusive distribution rights for Selmer (Paris) wind instruments and Yanagisawa saxophones in the United States. It employs a workforce of around 1,700 and operates 11 manufacturing facilities in the United States and Europe, in addition to Asian contract manufacturers.

History

*May 1995: Selmer Industries acquired Steinway Musical Properties, parent company of Steinway & Sons piano company. *July 1996: Selmer Industries was renamed "Steinway Musical Instruments". *August 1996: Steinway Musical Instruments

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

. *January 1997: acquisition of Emerson,

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

manufacturer. *December 1998: acquisition of Kluge Klaviaturen, piano key manufacturer. *March 1999: acquisition of Steinway Hall in New York City, prominent piano showroom with concert hall. *November 1999: acquisition of the O.S. Kelly Company, piano plate manufacturer. *January 2000: acquisition of Pianohaus Karl Lang, piano showroom and authorized Steinway piano dealer. *September 2000: acquisition of United Musical Instruments,

wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitch ...

manufacturer. *January 2003: merger of the Selmer Company and United Musical Instruments into one entity under

. *August 2004: acquisition of G. Leblanc, wind instrument manufacturer and distributor. *May 2008: acquisition of ArkivMusic, online retailer of recorded classical music. *September 2013: acquired by Paulson & Co.

Products

Current products

The company and its subsidiaries produces instruments under the following brand names: *Pianos: ** Steinway & Sons – pianos for the top-level market **Boston – pianos for the mid-level market **Essex – pianos for the entry-level market *Brasswinds: **

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the or ...

– trumpets, cornets, flugelhorns, trombones ** Conn – single and double horns,

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. There is also a soprano cor ...

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

s, trumpets,

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

sousaphone The sousaphone ( ) is a brass musical instrument in the tuba family. Created around 1893 by J.W. Pepper & Son, J. W. Pepper at the direction of American bandleader John Philip Sousa (after whom the instrument was then named), it was design ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

s ** Holton – cornets, French horns, trombones, trumpets **

– marching brass, trombones,

baritones A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

, cornets, flugelhorns, French horns, mellophones, trumpets, tubas, sousaphones **Prelude – trumpets, marching brass, piccolos, flutes, clarinets, saxophones (entry-level instruments) (Chinese) *Woodwinds: **Armstrong – flutes,

piccolo The piccolo ( ; ) is a smaller version of the western concert flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" or piccolo flute, the modern piccolo has the same type of fingerings as the ...

s ** Leblanc – clarinets ** Selmer – saxophones, clarinets, flutes,

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

bassoon The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...

s ** Vito – entry-level clarinets *Strings: **Glaesel –

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

es (Chinese) **Scherl & Roth – violins, violas, cellos, double basses (Chinese) **Wm. Lewis & Son – violins, violas, cellos, double basses (Chinese) *Percussion and drums: ** Ludwig ** Musser *Other: **''Listen: Life with Music & Culture'' – magazines **Rousseau – woodwind mouthpieces **Steinway & Sons Label – record label

Discontinued products

*Brasswinds: **Benge – trumpets, piccolo trumpets, trombones **Cleveland **Martin – trumpets, trombones *Woodwinds: **Artley **Avanti – flutes **Emerson – flutes, piccolos **Galway Spirit Flutes – flutes **Noblet **Normandy

References

{{Steinway & Sons Steinway & Sons Musical instrument manufacturing companies of the United States Music production companies Musical instrument retailers of the United States American companies established in 1995 Manufacturing companies established in 1995 2013 mergers and acquisitions