Steinway Hall

Steinway Hall (German: Steinway-Haus) is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened in 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and Steinway-Häuser are located in cities such as New York City, London, Berlin, and Vienna.

A related concept by Steinway is "Steinway Piano Galleries". The Steinway Piano Galleries have all the same features as Steinway Halls, but are smaller.

In 1864, William Steinway built elegant showrooms housing over 100 Steinway & Sons pianos at 71–73 East 14th Street, between University Place and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. During the next two years, demand for Steinway pianos had increased dramatically. Construction of the first Steinway Hall was pushed by the need for expansion, increased promotion, and better presentation of pianos and music culture through regular live performances. William Steinway carried planning and construction of the first Steinway Hall with the full support and cooperation from the City of New York. The concert hall was designed with 2,000 seats, and had a concert stage for a full 100-piece symphony orchestra.

It was built in 1866 behind the showrooms on 14th Street in Manhattan and was one of the first concert halls for wider audiences in New York City. Four days after the Academy of Music on 14th Street a few blocks away burned down to the ground, on May 22, 1866, William Steinway laid the first stone of the Steinway Hall building. Its four floors had enough space to fit in a showroom for more than 100 pianos, the concert hall and rooms for piano lessons. The hall and the other rooms were illuminated with over 700 gaslights. The ground floor was occupied by the showroom and the office. The first floor there was taken by the concert hall. With 2,500 seats at that time it was one of the biggest halls in the city of New York, becoming soon one of the cultural centers of the United States.

The first Steinway Hall was also the home for the New York Philharmonic for 25 years, from 1866 to 1891, until Carnegie Hall was opened in 1891. William Steinway recognized that it would be good for piano sales, if famous piano artists have a place to play on Steinway pianos, and also take a Steinway piano on a concert tour. In 1872, Steinway & Sons organised an unprecedented concert tour of 215 performances in 239 days for the Russian virtuoso pianist Anton Rubinstein. Rubinstein's legendary concert at the Steinway Hall was sold out with 3000 guests, many of them standing. "One concert on Saturday night, sells pianos on Monday morning" was one of William Steinway's sayings. Cultural highlights included performances of such artists as Fritz Kreisler, Walter Damrosch, Jenny Lind, readings of Charles Dickens and performances of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

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