Steck (piano)

Last updated
George Steck & Company
FormerlySteck & Grupe
IndustryPiano manufacturing
Founded1857
FounderGeorge Steck
Defunct1904
FateAcquired by Aeolian Company in 1904

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.

Contents

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 [1] or July 19, 1829 March 31, 1897) was born in Hesse-Kassel, Germany. [2] He grew up and studied pianomaking with Carl Scheel in Cassel, Germany. He moved to New York in 1853 and opened a piano factory four years later as the firm Steck & Grupe. [3] [2] [4] The company was known as George Steck & Company by 1860. [4] Another source lists him founding a new company in 1865, also known as Steck & Company. [2] The first factory was located on Twelfth Street and Third Avenue. 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 and 1876 Centennial Exposition 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 spent the remainder of his life attempting to design a piano that was always in tune. [3] [5] [6] [7] Factories were also run in Gotha, Germany. Richard Wagner reportedly composed the opera Parsifal on a Steck piano. [6] [3] Steck died in 1897. [2]

George Steck & Company combined with the Aeolian Company in 1904. The corporation continued to make Steck pianos. [3] In the 20th century Steck pianos were a trade name of the Aeolian Company. [8] By 1975 the pianos were manufactured in East Rochester, New York. [6] The Aeolian Company went out of business in 1985. [8] The Steck piano brand was then sold to Sohmer & Co. [9] and then to America Sejung Corporation, which dissolved in 2013. [10]

Steck Hall

Steck Hall
General information
Town or cityNew York City, New York
CountryUS
Opened1871

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. [11] [3] [12] Walt Whitman delivered his first lecture on Abraham Lincoln in the hall on April 14, 1879. [13] José Martí spoke at the hall on January 24, 1880, [14] his first speech in the United States. [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mason & Hamlin</span> American piano manufacturer

Mason & Hamlin is an American manufacturer of handcrafted grand and upright pianos, currently based in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1854, it is one of two surviving American piano manufacturers from the "Golden Age" of pianos, although some smaller piano manufacturers have since started in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wm. Knabe & Co.</span> US piano manufacturing company in Baltimore, Maryland

Wm. Knabe & Co. was a piano manufacturing company in Baltimore, Maryland, from the middle of the nineteenth century through the beginning of the 20th century, and continued as a division of Aeolian-American at East Rochester, New York, until 1982. The name is currently used for a line of pianos manufactured by Samick Musical Instruments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alpheus Babcock</span>

Alpheus Babcock was a piano and musical instrument maker in Boston, Massachusetts and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the early 19th century. Babcock is best known for patenting a complete iron frame in a single casting used to resist the strain of the strings in square pianos, he also patented a system of stringing in squares, and improvements in piano actions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy Gilbert</span>

Timothy Gilbert was an American piano manufacturer, abolitionist and religious organizer in Boston, Massachusetts. His brother Lemuel Gilbert was also a piano manufacturer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sohmer & Co.</span>

Sohmer & Co. was a piano manufacturing company founded in New York City in 1872. Sohmer & Co. marketed the first modern baby grand piano, and also manufactured pianos with aliquot stringing and bridge agraffes, as well as Cecilian "all-inside" player pianos and Welte-Mignon-Licensee reproducing pianos. Sohmer pianos were owned by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, and composers Victor Herbert and Irving Berlin. Sohmer is now a line of pianos manufactured by Samick Music Corporation in Korea.

Lindeman was a name used by a series of piano manufacturers in New York in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The concern was founded by William Lindeman (1794–1875) on a small scale in Dresden in about 1822, and reestablished by him in New York City in 1835 or 1836, where it grew to a medium size within twenty years. American piano historian Daniel Spillane credited him as one of the first successful immigrant German piano makers in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Mathushek</span> German piano maker

Frederick Mathushek was a piano maker who worked in Worms, Germany, and in New York City and New Haven, Connecticut, during the second half of the nineteenth century. His name was used by several different piano manufacturers through the 1950s, and was filed independently as a trademark for musical instruments in 2005 and 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Dolge</span> German-born industrialist, inventor and author

Alfred Dolge was a German-born industrialist, inventor, and author of two books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aeolian Company</span>

The Aeolian Company was a musical-instrument making firm whose products included player organs, pianos, sheet music, records and phonographs. Founded in 1887, it was at one point the world's largest such firm. During the mid 20th century, it surpassed Kimball to become the largest supplier of pianos in the United States, having contracts with Steinway & Sons due to its Duo-Art system of player pianos. It went out of business in 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Edward Chickering</span>

Thomas Edward Chickering was a piano manufacturer and soldier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hobart M. Cable</span> American piano manufacturer

The Hobart M. Cable Co. is a defunct American piano manufacturer that operated from 1900 until the 1960s, mostly in La Porte, Indiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Cable Company</span>

The Cable Company was an American manufacturer and distributor of pianos and reed organs that operated independently from 1880 to 1936.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin S. Votey</span> American entrepreneur and inventor

Edwin Scott Votey was an American businessman, inventor, industrial designer, and manufacturer of pianos and organs. He worked in the organ field all his adult life and had over twenty patents. He invented or co-invented several inventions for World War I. One was a pilotless airplane that was going to be used to drop bombs on the enemy but was never used.

The Weber Piano Company is a former piano manufacturing company based in New York City and East Rochester, New York from the middle of the 19th century through the beginning of the 20th century, and continued as a division of Aeolian-American at East Rochester, New York until 1985, when Aeolian went out of business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst Kaps</span> German piano manufacturer

Ernst Kaps Piano Fabrik was a German piano manufacturer founded in 1858 with the original factory at 20 to 22 Seminarstrasse in Dresden, Germany. Kaps acquired the title of purveyor of the Kingdom of Saxony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sohmer and Company Piano Factory</span> United States historic place

Sohmer and Company Piano Factory is a historic piano factory located in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York City. It was built in 1886 by Sohmer & Co., and is a six-story, L-shaped, Rundbogenstil / Romanesque Revival style brick building. The corner features a clock tower with a copper trimmed mansard roof. The building was expanded about 1906–1907. It was converted to residential usage starting in 2007.

Lydia Kunz Venth was an American composer and pianist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Starr Piano Company</span> American piano manufacturer

The Starr Piano Company was an American manufacturer of pianos from the late 1800s to the middle 1900s. Founded by James Starr, the company also made phonographs and records and was the parent company of the jazz label Gennett. The company is known for manufacturing Starr, Trayser, Duchess, Richmond, Remington, and Royal pianos.

America Sejung Corporation was a distributor of pianos and guitars that operated from 2002 to 2013. It was a United States subsidiary of Sejung, a South Korean corporation with a factory in Qingdao, China. Headquartered in Ontario, California, America Sejung imported and sold acoustic pianos under the brand names of Hobart M. Cable, George Steck, and Falcone; digital pianos under the brand of Sejung; and guitars under the brands of S101 and Canvas.

References

  1. "History Of The Piano — George Steck & Co". HoustonPianoCompany.com. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Clinkscale, Martha Novak (1993). Makers of the Piano: 1820-1860. Oxford University Press. p. 350. ISBN   978-0-19-816625-2.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Dolge 1911, pp. 318–319.
  4. 1 2 Men Who Advertise 1870, p. 26.
  5. Spillane 1890, pp. 233, 235.
  6. 1 2 3 Thompson & Bohle 1975, pp. 2141–2142.
  7. Marquis 1975, p. 504.
  8. 1 2 Hoover, Cynthia Adams (2014-07-01), "Aeolian Corporation", Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.l2261117, ISBN   978-1-56159-263-0 , retrieved 2021-05-16
  9. Fine, Larry (1990). The Piano Book: Buying & Owning a New Or Used Piano. Brookside Press. p. 93. ISBN   978-0-9617512-3-4.
  10. "C2404562 AMERICA SEJUNG CORP". California Secretary of State / Business Search. Retrieved 2022-03-31.[ dead link ]
  11. Spillane 1890, p. 235.
  12. "George Steck & Co.'s New Piano Rooms". The American Art Journal. 5 (9): 132. 1866. ISSN   1946-195X. JSTOR   25306208 via JSTOR.
  13. Pannapacker, William (2004). Revised Lives: Whitman, Religion, and Constructions of Identity in Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American Culture. Routledge. p. 98. ISBN   978-1-135-92451-5.
  14. Turton, Peter (1986). Jose Marti, architect of Cuba's freedom. Internet Archive. London : Zed Books ; Totowa, N.J., USA : US distributor, Biblio Distribution Center. p. 10. ISBN   978-0-86232-510-7.
  15. Ripoll, Carlos (2017-09-04). Jose Marti, the United States, and the Marxist Interpretation of Cuban. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-351-51057-8.

Bibliography