Steinway & Sons

Steinway & Sons is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The fast growing company opened a factory New York City and later one in Hamburg, Germany. The Steinway factory in the Queens borough of New York City supplies the Americas and the factory in Hamburg supplies the rest of the world.

Steinway is a pre-eminent company, known for making top quality pianos and for its innovation within piano development. Steinway has been granted 139 patents, the first of which was in 1857. The company's share of the high-end grand piano market consistently exceeds 80%.

Steinway pianos have received numerous awards. One of the first was a gold medal in 1855 at the American Institute Fair at the New York Crystal Palace. From 1855 to 1862, Steinway pianos received 35 gold medals, with three more medals awarded at the International Exposition of 1867 in Paris. The European part of the company holds a royal warrant of appointment to Queen Elizabeth II. Steinway & Sons was named Company of the Year in 1996 by The Music Trades magazine. The award was given in recognition of Steinway's "overall performance, quality, value-added products, a well-executed promotional program and disciplined distribution which generated the most impressive results in the entire music industry."

In addition to the flagship Steinway piano line, Steinway markets two other, lower priced brands of piano sold under the brand names Boston and Essex. The Boston brand is for the mid-level market and the Essex brand is for the entry-level market. Boston and Essex pianos are designed by Steinway engineers and produced in Asia at other piano makers' factories under the supervision of Steinway employees, to optimise quality while ensuring lower parts, production and labour.