Steingraeber & Söhne

The piano manufacturer Steingraeber & Söhne is a German maker of upright and grand pianos. This family-owned business has its headquarters in Steingraeber Haus, a historic Rococo palace in Bayreuth. Udo Schmidt-Steingraeber is the sixth generation of Steingraebers to lead the family business.

The company's forebears came from a family in Rudolstadt, Thuringia that built harpsichords. The family was subsequently based in Neustadt an der Orla, where it took up instrument building. Eduard Steingraeber was born in 1823; he first apprenticed with his uncle, Gottlieb Steingraeber, in Neustadt an der Orla. During his years of travel, he worked in a number of places, including the workshop of the Viennese piano builder Nannette Streicher, daughter of the well-known Augsburg piano maker, Andreas Stein. While there, he was permitted to accompany Franz Liszt on his concert tours, where he looked after the pianos and grand pianos that Liszt "demolished" at his performances. In 1852, Eduard Steingraeber founded the Pianofortefabrik Steingraeber [Steingraeber Piano Factory] in Bayreuth. Steingraeber purchased the Liebhardt Palace on Friedrichstraße in 1871 and made it the head office of the company. And it has borne the name of Steingraeber Haus ever since. The company rapidly became the largest piano factory in Bavaria. Steingraeber has also supplied pianos to the Wagner family and to the Bayreuther Festspiele since the festival began in 1876. In 1881, Richard Wagner commissioned the instrument known as the Parsifal bell, which is used in the temple scenes of Wagner's opera, Parsifal. During high volume production periods, Steingraeber's more than thirty employees, including twelve piano builders, specialise in the manufacture of high-quality pianos that are still predominantly handcrafted. The cases are constructed of solid wood and no particle board is ever used. Steingraeber & Söhne even treats the surfaces of the piano case with shellac and wax instead of polyester and synthetic resin varnishes. The company has sought technical solutions to simplify piano playing for wheelchair users and, above all, to provide them with a serviceable alternative to working the pedals with their feet. Steingraeber currently produces some forty uprights and seventy grand pianos per year. Since the company was founded, however, Steingraeber & Söhne has built over 40,000 grand and upright pianos.

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