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Steinway Factory Tour

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Steinway Factory Tour - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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What is a Steinway factory tour like?

November 9, 2021 • Stephen Reed

Steinway Pianos • Joy of Piano • Learning About Pianos • Resource Center

A Series of Pleasant Surprises

You’ve been impressed, even inspired by the sound of Steinway pianos at concerts or in friends' homes over the years.  Their golden tone and stylish black glossy finish--it all speaks to you.

So what is a Steinway & Sons factory tour like, you ask?

A Steinway factory tour is a series of pleasant surprises, beginning with your entrance into the factory.  Though attractive, the front door to the Astoria, NY facility is unassuming.  Upon entering, you’d never know that the building's small foyer will be leading you into a spacious 500,000 sq. ft. facility, just minutes from downtown Manhattan.

So this is the place they build the famous Steinway pianos.

The next pleasant surprise you experience is the wide range of courteous employees at this Steinway factory. From the janitorial staff running the vacuum cleaners, administrators greeting you warmly as you await your tour, your guide, and all the Steinway craftspeople you meet on your tour--everyone is genuinely welcoming in Steinwayland.

Indeed, any notion that staff working for a world-class brand like Steinway might be aloof is immediately dashed as you go through your tour.  The craftspeople are pros and accustomed to visitors looking in on their work.  They can remain focused on their work while also engaging visitors on a tour.

“Treat every customer in a courteous and professional manner.”   These words, found in Steinway’s Standard of Excellence Customer Code, are truly embodied by Steinway staff.

By the end of this article, you will know more about the inner workings of Steinway’s Astoria, NY factory and some of the key parts of Steinway pianos that have made them the standard of the industry for many decades.

Each craftsperson leads to the next

Steinway & Sons staff member Cameron Underhill took our tour up and down the different floors of the Astoria facility, giving us an education one could only get by seeing this complex process up close.

As we went through the hour and a half tour, the fact that a Steinway grand piano takes about a year to be completed increasingly made sense.  Each craftsperson, whether they are a woodworker, painter, or keyboard specialist is each part of a well-considered, systematic stream to assemble the next Steinway.

You feel like you’re witnessing the same process used 100 years ago to make Steinways--because you are!  Steinway still produces unique handcrafted pieces, finishing 3-5 pianos per day at the Astoria facility.

Except for some high-tech cutting machines, the entire tour is a rare and pleasant throwback to an earlier time in American manufacturing when the decisions made by highly-skilled craftspeople affected the quality of the final product.

Witnessing the Bending of the Rim

Our tour was fortunate in being able to see several Steinway workers bend the rim for a Model D Steinway concert grand piano.  They carefully glued several thin, 20 ft. Hard Rock Maple boards together, stacking them on top of each other.

After letting the glue settle, the Steinway workers then hoist the stacked, glued boards in the air, over their heads, looking like dockworkers as they take the rim over to the rim mold.

Seeing how the thin stacked maple boards are flexible enough to be bent around the rim mold, then clasped into place reminds us that this is the only way for Steinway to provide such a bent rim.  This couldn’t happen with a single board of wood.

But stacking thin boards of maple together does the trick, even as those boards later look like a single, beautiful, and functional rim. When we see a finished grand piano later, with just such a beautiful rim, it’s hard to believe that those bent rims needed to rest for up to 16 weeks to settle following that wood-bending process we witnessed.

So why all this fuss about Steinway’s patented one-piece rim process?  The rim plays a key role in supporting and enhancing the acoustical properties of the piano’s soundboard.  Its stability, durability, and strength together create and improve on the distinctive “Steinway sound.”

Today’s Steinway rim allows Steinway’s patented Diaphragmatic Soundboard to vibrate freely and to generate a truly golden tone.

Seeing how the Diaphragmatic Soundboard is made

As alluded to earlier, the other critical part of the Steinway grand piano’s acoustic properties is the company’s patented Diaphragmatic Soundboard, made from panels of close-grained Sitka Spruce glued together. The soundboard is thicker in the middle, tapering to its edges.

When passing through the “belly department” of the factory, we saw several light-colored wooden soundboards getting prepped for installation.  Each soundboard must be perfected before installation since the soundboard and bridge must be able to manage 20,000 pounds of string pressure while also producing a range of sounds, piano and fortissimo.

Steinway’s soundboard is known for its ability to respond to a pianist’s subtle playing to bring out their emotion. The soundboard is considered the very heart of the Steinway tone, color, and richness.

Checking out where the action is

The “action” of the piano is self-defining: without the action, there would be no sound produced.  The action in a Steinway piano responds to the touch instead of being forced into action.

A piano’s action refers to the slender, wooden hammers, covered in special wool felt.  These hammers are what strike the strings when keys are played.  Each piece of this mechanical part of the piano has to be tested by several different people to guarantee rapid, sensitive movement in the coming years.

These little hammers are the reason why grand pianos must have sturdy, huge rims and soundboards. Just as an automobile engine has a heavy case around little pistons firing hard, so must a Steinway grand piano rim and soundboard absorb and contain the sound the hammers create.

Tone regulation:  Sensitive ears needed

Tone regulation.  Here then was another fascinating stop on our tour--and one so different from any other facet of the operations.  The sensitivity involved in getting each key’s tone pitch perfect reminds one of the fairy tale “The Princess and the Pea.”

Tone regulators note minute differences in weight with great skill, adding small weights to any key that needs it to have the right tone.  Tone regulators can spend up to 60 hours per piano, helping it to become a beautiful musical instrument.

If you can recall doing a delicate titration exercise in your high school chemistry lab, measuring tiny amounts precisely, that is similar to the tone regulators’ work.

Some tone regulators have such keen hearing that, attending a concert, they can recognize the tone of a Steinway piano that they adjusted years before.

Handcrafting skills learned in-house at the Astoria factory

I asked our tour guide, Cameron Underhill, about the training involved with all of these specialty craftspeople.

“While a background in furniture making can be a good background for us, most of the skills are taught here in-house,” says Cameron.  He notes that some of the work at their factory is very specialized.

Many of the craftspeople spend their whole career with Steinway.  Some are multi-generational craftspeople, who had a parent and grandparent working at the Astoria facility.  Pride in their product and the Steinway brand is an obvious aspect of their long tenures in Astoria.

M. Steinert customers welcome to take a tour

While Steinway has suspended public tours of the Astoria, NY factory during the pandemic, M. Steinert & Sons customers can accompany our piano consultant to New York to see how Steinways are made.

Moreover, our individual or institutional customers can engage in the Steinway Selection process, whereby M. Steinert customers select their actual grand piano.  You try out six different newly-built Steinway pianos of the model you have chosen, then decide on the one you want to have at home or in your school’s concert hall.

Choosing one’s own, individual Steinway is an empowering moment for any M. Steinert customer, and we are happy to set up the tour and the Steinway Selection process for you.

Come to one of our showrooms to start the process of deciding which Steinway model is best for you.  In the meantime, read these articles to learn more about Steinway & Sons and their world-famous pianos:

• Top six most popular Steinway pianos
• Can you finance a Steinway piano?
• Do I need a Steinway if I’m not into classical music?

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Steinway Piano Factory

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steinway.com

Tue, 9:30am-noon; Wed-Mon, closed

Nearby Subway Stops

N, Q at Astoria-Ditmars Blvd.

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Free, but advance reservation required

In 1853, Henry Engelhardt Steinweg and his five sons introduced—and eventually patented—acoustic and mechanical improvements that made their grand and upright pianos exemplars of craftsmanship. Maintaining that reputation, sometimes at the expense of market share and profits, has been the company's singular obsession ever since. It still takes a year to make a Steinway, which is made the same way, and in the same factory, as it has been for more than a century. Steinway is the sole American piano maker left (and one of the last major manufacturers in New York City). Since its 1872 opening, what once fostered a 400-acre company town has been whittled down to one four-floor factory complex. Here, the 2,000 pianos turned out yearly are almost entirely hand-made by Steinway's 300 craftspeople, some of whom learned the trade alongside their parents. They saw, sand, bend, carve, and regulate the 12,000 parts of each instrument with tools and machines that were used by 19th century workers. New processes like the "Pounding Room," where a machine bangs on the keys thousands of times to reveal any flaws, have been introduced to further guarantee time-honored quality. — Simon Spelling

Tours Offered in the fall, winter and spring, the $10 2.5-hour tour begins at 9:30 a.m. in the lumber yard and follows the path each piano takes to completion. Highlights include the sauna-like curing room, a vault stacked with precious veneers, and the famous rim-bending room where burly workers force lengths of wood into piano-shaped moulds. Advance reservations are required; email [email protected] or call 718-721-2600 x3169.

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Photos Inside Steinway & Sons Piano Factory’s Secret Vault

Steinway & Sons’ piano factory in Astoria, Queens is one of the city’s great hidden gems, where 250 workers are still meticulously handcrafting the world’s most acclaimed pianos since the 1870s. It is only one of two factories worldwide for Steinway, supplying all of the demand for the company’s pianos in the Western Hemisphere, following many of the innovations patented by the company over the centuries. Steinway is still regularly adding new innovations to the manufacturing process as well, necessary to maintain its place among the great instrument names in the musical world. Steinway is also innovating on the marketing end, with the opening of a secret vault that showcases its most exceptional pianos, including the limited edition John Lennon piano.

The Vault is so off-limits that it is opened by biometric fingerprint, and only four people in the company have access. We recently had the opportunity to go inside the vault with Anthony Gilroy, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at Steinway & Sons.  and once his fingerprint was approved, an automated female voice announced “Access granted. Welcome Mr. Gilroy” in a very James Bond-esque way. The vault door, hand wheel and all, is not visible from anywhere on the floor, but located behind another door. Inside, there is space for six pianos displayed to their most optimal conditions.

Each piano is presented as a “vignette” which is, fittingly, merchandised more as performance art than how it would be in a standard show room. The lighting, which can only be controlled by app by the four who have biometric access to The Vault, is custom-designed for each piano, all of which retail for at least $200,000. One rather unusual piano, inspired by Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition goes for $2.5 million. “You’re going to light a wood finished piano differently than you would light an ebony piano with silver accents,” explains Gilroy.

The most famous of the pianos in the Vault may well be the John Lennon Imagine Limited Edition, launched in 2010 with the partnership of Yoko Ono on what would have been Lennon’s 70th Birthday. It features artwork by John Lennon on the music desk, of which there are seven different versions. The piano is modeled after the piano Lennon bought for Ono in 1971 that sits in the apartment they shared together in The Dakota  where Ono still lives today. The piano has Lennon’s signature at the right end of the keyboard and the words “You may say I’m a dreamer” on the inside of the rim. A portion of the proceeds of this piano go to John Lennon Educational Tour Bus , a non-profit mobile recording studio. There are only a limited number of these pianos left.

The Lang Lang Black Diamond Limited Edition piano is signed by the pianist and designed in conjunction with the furniture designer Dakota Jackson who is a pianist himself. Like most of the pianos in The Vault, this piano comes with Spirio, the program that enables the piano to play on its own. The Lang Lang piano comes with Spirio R, which allows you to record, edit and play back what you’ve been playing. Following Chinese superstition surrounding the lucky number 8, there are only 88 pianos available of the Lang Lang piano in the Model B size, and 8 in the Model D size that is generally used in concert halls.

Another piano is made from of one single flitch (or plank) of Santos rosewood, an exotic wood from East India — making it a particularly rare piano both in terms of the material and construction. Another piano has a Macassar ebony exotic wood veneer, while another called the Onyx Duet has the Macassar ebony only on the underside of the rim and lid. When the piano is closed, it looks like a classic Steinway piano. And one piano which has recently moved out of The Vault but is sitting just outside it is the Heliconia Designed by Lalique piano created in partnership with the Hamburg Steinway factory featuring crystals and silver-colored inlays from the famous French glassmaker.

Last but not least is “Pictures at an Exhibition”, the multi-million dollar art case piano with cuckoo clock legs. There’s only one available and it took four years to make. It was painted by notable Steinway artist Paul Wyse who has painted members of Parliament in Canada, a portrait of Billy Joel that was hung at Steinway Hall , and other works. The piano shows works of art referenced or inspired in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition , a famous piece for the piano and was developed in conjunction with Steinway’s President who was looking for a piano that could meld art and music.

The Vault also has a soundproof lounge, with furniture designed by Christopher Guy and a mid-century Teague Steinway piano   a design created for the 100th anniversary of the Steinway company. It too has Spirio, so if a VIP’s guests get bored of the testing of the pianos, they can sit in the lounge, peruse a copy of Christopher Payne’s incredible book  Making Steinway   while listening to a pre-recorded piece. We are potentially planning a tour of the Steinway factory for our Untapped New York readers. If you’d like advance notice of this tour, sign up below!

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Steinway Tour Advance Notice

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Next, check out the Top 10 Secrets of the Steinway Factory . 

Michelle Young

Untapped New York Insider Events – April 2024

artisanship and craft: inside the steinway piano factory in new york

since its founding in 1853 in a manhattan loft on varick street, steinway & sons has been considered the one of the world’s finest piano manufacturers. over the next thirty years, german immigrant henry engelhard steinway and his sons developed the modern piano, building each instrument one at a time. now — more than 160 years later — the grands, uprights, limited-editions and special collections are still primarily constructed by hand, using skills passed down from master to apprentice over several generations.

every single steinway is crafted by a team of dedicated artisans with decades of experience, who take pride in humanizing each object using many of the processes which have remained essentially unchanged since the brand’s early years. built in one of two company-owned and operated factories — astoria, new york and hamburg, germany — with more than 12,000 individual parts, every instrument bears its own musical character and is as distinctly unique as the pianist who plays it. 

to document the making of a piano, designboom went inside the steinway factory in new york.  every aspect of the instrument’s evolution from a stack of wood to a playable piece has been expertly considered and carefully executed. laborious procedures are carried out alongside meticulous ones: the rim-bending process sees a series of craftsmen carry laminated wood onto large metal presses, which they then forcefully clamp into place to create the piano rim; an italian artisan working at steinway for more than 30 years carefully hand carves ornamental details for special editions like the louis XV and the chippendale. see designboom’s walkthrough of the factory’s workshops, restoration rooms, and storage spaces to see the craftsmen at work, below.  

additionally, the company recently revealed the ‘steinway spirio’, a player piano system which performs at the same standard as a concert pianist. in conjunction, a new initiative sees three creatives over a period of three years use this instrument as an artistic medium, finally pairing the reinterpreted piano with a steinway musician, who composes a score specifically for that piece. see the first realized work in the series by LA-based artist mark bradford on designboom, here . 

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Cool factory tours: Go behind the scenes at New York factories

Glimpse the city’s manufacturing history—and history in the making—by touring these local factories.

You can spot reminders of New York’s industrial heritage throughout the city: A jaunt to brunch in Greenpoint might take you past an enormous pencil decorating the now-decrepit home of the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company, which whittled No. 2s for a century. Along the East River, you’ll pass the 40-foot-high Domino Sugar Refinery sign, a relic from an era when the Williamsburg factory churned out 3 million pounds of the processed sweetener per day. Many once-bustling buildings have been repurposed, such as the Old American Can Factory , a 19th-century structure in Gowanus that was gutted and turned into a hive for creative ventures, including Rooftop Films . In addition, newer businesses producing small batches of artisanal goods have revitalized Brooklyn’s industrial scene. Take an up-close look at these Gotham manufacturers.

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Mast Brothers Chocolate

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Iowa-born brothers Rick and Michael Mast craft ethically sourced cocoa products on-site at this Williamsburg facility. Discerning chocoholics drool over sophisticated flavors such as serrano pepper and almond sea salt. Wrapped in whimsically patterned paper emblazoned with anchors, stripes, bicycles, and geek-chic patterns like gingham and houndstooth (all designed in-house), these treats ($7 each) make a perfect gift—if you manage not to scarf them on the way home. Weekend factory tours are currently on hold but will resume in January, allowing you to scope out the delicious behind-the-scenes action and laborious transformation from bean to bar. And starting in December, the company will offer hands-on chocolate classes and other workshops at its new Manhattan outpost (215 Water St between Beekman and Fulton Sts). • 718-388-2625, mastbrothers.com . Daily noon–7pm

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

In March 1911, a massive fire claimed the lives of 146 workers—mostly young Jewish and Italian immigrants—in a garment factory that occupied the 9th through 11th floors of the Asch Building, one of many factories close to Washington Square Park. The disaster was a pivotal event in the burgeoning labor rights movement; these days, investigators from the Department of Labor make regular rounds in the Garment District to look out for any sweatshop-style conditions. The scorched structure was renovated, renamed the Brown Building and currently houses NYU’s Center for Developmental Genetics. A plaque designating the building a National Historic Landmark pays homage to the site’s historical significance and the people who perished there. Download an audio tour and printable maps from the Jewish Women’s Archives ( jwa.org/triangle ) for a guided walking tour of the area. • rememberthetrianglefire.org

Brooklyn Brewery

Brooklyn’s German immigrants got the whole borough buzzed in the 1800s, when it was one of the country’s foremost brewing locales—at its height in the 1870s, it was home to 48 breweries. Today, Brooklyn Brewery keeps the suds flowing with a stable of perennial favorites, such as Brooklyn Lager and seasonal libations including Oktoberfest and Black Chocolate Stout (based on an imperial-stout style once bottled exclusively for Catherine the Great). The brewery hosts public tours and tastings regularly: On weekdays, two-hour Small Batch tours offer visitors the chance to swig samples of four beers and learn about the brewing process (Mon–Thu; $8, reservations required). On Saturdays, free tours leave on the hour, 1–5pm (last tour at 5pm; no reservations); no drinks are included in the one-hour jaunt, but you can sip brews in the Tasting Room until 8pm (beers are $5 each, or five for $20). Starting in December the brewery will team up with Smorgasburg to host five rotating food vendors on Sundays, so you can take a one-hour tour between 1–4pm (free, no reservations), then devour gourmet goodies in the Tasting Room until 6pm. Weird brewery bonus: Urban farmers who tend chickens can pick up spent grain to use as feed. • 718-486-7422, brooklynbrewery.com

Steinway & Sons Piano Factory

Founded in 1853 by German immigrant Henry Engelhard Steinway, the company began handcrafting pianos in a loft on Varick Street in Manhattan. Prestige followed, and Steinway Hall, a 2,000-seat auditorium, opened on 14th Street in 1866—it housed the New York Philharmonic until the orchestra moved to Carnegie Hall in 1891. By the 1890s, the factory had relocated to a sprawling complex in Astoria and erected Steinway Village, which contained housing, a foundry, post offices and schools for employees and their families. Steinway still fabricates 2,500 pianos annually between its Queens facility and an outpost in Hamburg, Germany. Learn about wood, veneer and tuning on a free tour, which runs 9:30am–noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays from September through June. E-mail [email protected] for reservations. • 718-721-2600, steinway.com

Kentile Factory

The eight-story sign towering over the Gowanus landscape is an impressive reminder of the nabe’s industrial past. (You can buy silk-screened shirts bearing the Kentile sign and scaffolding from Live Poultry, a Brooklyn company enamored with defunct manufacturing spaces.) Before the factory shuttered in the 1990s, it churned out vinyl tiles. Unfortunately, they were full of asbestos, and the company eventually filed for bankruptcy. Today, the building houses a number of manufacturing businesses, but the original sign (erected around 1949) remains. You can’t tour the premises, but you can catch a great view of it at twilight from the F and G lines between Carroll St and Fourth Ave–9th St. Even though the letters are no longer illuminated in neon purple, the sign still casts a stark silhouette.

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Inside World’s Most Legendary Piano Factory

It’s very likely that the stark polished piano you’ve seen at the concert hall was made by Steinway & Sons — in fact, 80 percent of all pianos playing in halls today are made by Steinway. Since the company was founded in 1853 by a German immigrant Heinrich Steinweg, the brand has continuously scored the most innovative, with some 126 patents that shook the industry and gave the piano the shape, sound and touch we’ve come to enjoy today. I’ve long been stunned by the impeccable sound of Steinway pianos and was thrilled to discover that most of the instruments are still being made right here in New York City in the area of Queens once called Steinway Village.

Back in the day, Steinway Village had a foundry and sawmill, houses for all employees, kindergarten, lending library, post office, fire department, and many parks. Today, the same factory (along with its Hamburg location) produces more than 3,000 pianos a year but has hardly changed the core processes and, hence, production time — in the world of nanotechnology it still takes 12 months and many human hands to build one piano.

The rim (the side) is the most visible structural element of a grand piano and it’s made of 25 foot long layers upon layers of long-fiber hard rock maple sheets. It takes five men to move the layered rim and apply it around the metal form — the wood is hard to bend and it has to stay in the rim press overnight, followed by a stay of many weeks in the rim conditioning room to fully dry into shape.

If you live in a place with high humidity the pianos you would find at your local Steinway dealer would have been specially treated at the factory (note “HOT” written with chalk on the photo above). The difference is how dry the wood of your piano would be. A regularly dry wood may work well in a Northern climate. Moving to South America, however, with humidity reaching 80%, will soak the fibers of your dry piano and completely change the sound. Pianos made for hot and humid climates use wood with more moisture retained in its fibers.

Steinway & Sons Factory Steinway Pl, Queens, NYC ( Map it ) Inquire about available tours via email

Steinway Hall Showroom 1133 6 Ave., Manhattan ( Map it ) Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. except Sunday steinway.com

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• Division of Education 1-800-STEINWAY

Steinway & Sons’ Division of Education hosts a variety of exciting and informational programs for students, faculty, staff, technicians, and donors. 

• Seminars & Workshops
• VIP Factory Tours

The Steinway & Sons

Exclusive access to the world’s finest pianos

PLEASE NOTE: THE FORM ON THIS PAGE IS SPECIFICALLY FOR INSTITUTIONAL REQUESTS FOR FACTORY TOURS. AT THIS TIME, WE ARE NOT DOING PERSONAL/INDIVIDUAL FACTORY TOURS. WE DO OFFER A VIRTUAL FACTORY TOUR FOR FREE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. YOU CAN FIND THAT AND MORE INFORMATION ON PUBLIC TOURS (SHOULD THEY BECOME AVAILABLE) ON  WWW.STEINWAY.COM . 

Steinways are still handmade in New York City, as they have been since 1853. Witnessing the making of a Steinway from wood selection to polishing to final tuning at our Astoria factory is an unforgettable experience.

Your Steinway & Sons Division of Education representative can arrange a trip to New York for donors, administration, faculty, staff, and/or students.

“We had an awesome experience choosing the Steinway that was going to fit best for our organization’s needs. It was such a special bonus to receive a tour of the Steinway factory the day we were visiting!”

Lauren Eastlack

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Steinway & Sons Announces Official Reopening of Historic Astoria Factory

ASTORIA, NY (July 20, 2020) – Steinway & Sons today announced that its historic Astoria factory is fully reopened and once again producing the world’s finest pianos. After a partial opening earlier in July (with about 20% of its workforce), the company has gradually welcomed back its full complement of more than 200 artisans, along with the managers, foremen, engineers, and other employees supporting Steinway’s manufacturing process.

After its founding in 1853 in Manhattan and multiple New York City expansions, Steinway & Sons purchased the land where the Astoria factory stands more than 150 years ago and opened the factory soon after. Piano production has continued on this site – mostly unabated – though the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, two World Wars, and the Great Depression. During World War II, the factory was used to build gliders as part of the U.S. war effort as well as special “Victory Vertical” pianos that provided live music to troops on the front lines.

“In these times, the power of music to heal and to bring us together is needed even more.”

“Our company is more than 167 years old, and we have faced many unique challenges since our founding,” said Ron Losby, President & CEO, Steinway & Sons. “While today’s pandemic is unprecedented in many ways, I have no doubt that we will rise to the occasion once again as we continue to provide our precision-crafted pianos to artists, institutions, and those with a love of music. In these times, the power of music to heal and to bring us together is needed even more.”

During the factory downtime, extensive measures were taken  to ensure a safe work environment for returning workers. Among the many changes Steinway’s workers encountered upon their return to work were temperature checks upon entry, health screenings, company-provided face masks, staggered shifts and breaks, numerous new hand sanitizer stations and rigorous cleaning schedules, and a new layout in some areas to ensure adequate distancing between workers.

“While we are a very traditional company, one of our most important traditions is constantly improving our manufacturing facilities and processes – and in turn improving the pianos that we produce,” said Stephen Emmerth, Vice President of Manufacturing, Steinway & Sons. “So integrating these changes happened naturally, and we’re now not only building the best Steinways we’ve ever built – we’re doing so in the safest factory environment we’ve ever had.”

The Steinway factory was closed for almost four months. “It’s very difficult to lose almost one third of our production for the year,” Losby said. “Building a Steinway is a labor-intensive process that can’t be sped up. We were actually surprised with the level of sales we saw during this pandemic. If the demand for Steinways this fall is typical of other years, we will likely run out of pianos, so we are very hopeful that our factory will be able to continue at full production. However, the safety of our artisans is our number one priority. If at any point we feel there is a safety issue, we will take whatever steps are necessary to remediate that issue, up to and including another factory shutdown.”

As another casualty of the pandemic, many great piano festivals and competitions that were set to take place this summer and beyond have been cancelled or postponed. As a result, Steinway has a large inventory of almost-new, competition-approved pianos for sale to the general public at a discount through the end of July.

Visit  www.steinway.com/festivalpianos  for more information.  

Press Contact

Anthony Gilroy [email protected] (718) 204-3116

About Steinway & Sons

Since 1853, Steinway pianos have set an uncompromising standard for sound, touch, beauty, and investment value. Because of a dedication to continuous improvement, today’s Steinway remains the choice of 9 out of 10 concert artists, and it is the preferred piano of countless musicians, professional and amateur, throughout the world. For more information, visit www.steinway.com .

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5 New Hotels Where the Past Meets the Present

Turrets, towers and tapestries greet guests at these evocative hotels in reimagined historic buildings in London, New York and beyond. (The food’s not bad, either.)

By Stephanie Rosenbloom

When is a hotel more than a place to sleep? When it’s in a building with a storied past, allowing guests to go back in time to the Gilded Age or Edwardian era as easily as they go to the gym or spa.

Nowadays you can check into a 17th-century former soap factory on the French Riviera, or part of the Old War Office in London, or a Renaissance-palazzo-style building that was once a bank in New York. Here are five new hotels in historic spaces where you can experience the past and present, delighting in the architecture of vanished days even as you indulge in the latest luxuries.

Château de Théoule

Théoule-sur-mer, france.

This seaside respite on the Côte d’Azur was once a 17th-century soap factory yet looks like a castle thanks to a Scottish lord who, in the early 1900s, added turrets and crenelated ramparts. Near the Massif de l’Estérel mountain range, the property opened this month with 44 rooms and suites, some in the castle and others in villas. All have an airy feel, thanks to linen curtains, rattan light fixtures, hardwood floors and views of the Bay of Cannes.

While the building begs to be explored, soft sand and sunshine are the order of the day — and the hotel has its own beach, La Plage Blanche, with 90 sun beds. Château de Théoule is about 20 minutes from Cannes, though if you get hungry there’s no need to leave the sand. A beach restaurant and lounge has cocktails — like the Strambery Fields (elderberry-infused gin, vanilla syrup, strawberry purée, tonic and egg white) — and menu items that include salads, pissaladière (think focaccia with confit onions, anchovies and black olives), and grilled octopus with citrus fennel and chimichurri. If you can bear to leave your lounge chair, explore the area’s hiking trails, swim in the pool, or visit the hotel spa for a massage or body treatment.

As evening descends, head to Mareluna on the terrace of the castle overlooking the bay for Mediterranean food and wine with dishes like cuttlefish tagliatelle with avocado and smoked herring eggs. Prices from 360 euros, or about $390 in low season, and from €920 in high season (mid-June to mid-September). The hotel will close for the season in mid-November.

Raffles London at the OWO

The former workplace of government and military officials, including Winston Churchill , the Old War Office (known as the New War Office when it was built in the early 1900s) has long been a place of intrigue. Fans of James Bond may recognize its Edwardian Baroque - style exterior from some of the films, and indeed Ian Fleming , the creator of Bond and a former naval intelligence officer, is said to have visited the building. It’s now open to the public for the first time, with part of it reborn as the 120-room-and-suite Raffles London at the OWO, the first Raffles Hotels & Resorts property in Britain.

Inside the grand space, some of the offices of political and military leaders have become suites, including one named for Churchill. There are also corner suites that take their names from female spies and other women linked to the property’s history, including Viscountess Astor , the first woman to sit in the House of Commons, and World War II operatives such as Vera May Atkins , a spy who recruited British secret agents.

The hotel’s interior design is by Thierry Despont , the French architect and designer known for his work on the Ritz Paris and the centennial restoration of the Statue of Liberty, who died last year.

Strategic planning taking place nowadays involves when to book an appointment at the hotel’s spa, which spans four floors. Historic spaces have new purposes, like a former library that’s been transformed into a restaurant, Saison by Mauro Colagreco , with Mediterranean dishes from the chef, perhaps best known for his Michelin-starred restaurant, Mirazur , in France. At Mauro Colagreco , another of the chef’s restaurants at the hotel, tasting menus highlight seasonal British fruits and vegetables.

Visit the Drawing Room , a wood-paneled lounge with a Steinway piano, for afternoon tea or something stronger, which you can sip while overlooking the Horse Guards at Buckingham Palace. Or slip off for a drink in rooms formerly used by MI5 at the underground Spy Bar . Prices from 922 pounds, or about $1,162.

Hotel Casa Lucia

Buenos aires.

Once one of Latin America’s tallest buildings, the Edificio Mihanovich — commissioned in the 1920s by Nicolas Mihanovich, a shipping businessman — is now home to this new 142-room-and-suite hotel. Inspired by the shape of a lighthouse, the building was among the first things sailors could see when coming into port, according to Casa Lucia, and Mihanovich wanted it to be tall enough so that he could see his own ships.

These days, guests can benefit from his ambitions with bird’s-eye views from some of the soft-hued contemporary rooms and suites. Many have balconies with outdoor showers, and spots overlooking Buenos Aires and the Río de la Plata.

In addition to being near the river, you’re in the midst of all that the chic Recoleta neighborhood has to offer: French-inspired architecture, boutiques, galleries and tourist destinations such as the Recoleta Cemetery , where you can visit the tomb of the former first lady Eva Perón .

Back at the hotel, savor Argentine cuisine and, of course, wine at Cantina Restaurant , then go next door to Le Club Bacan , a moody cocktail bar with a large selection of Argentine wines. Later this spring, you should be able to drop by the completed fitness center or the spa, which will have a heated pool. Prices from $670.

The Fifth Avenue Hotel

Located in a building that’s more than a century old, as well as a new 24-story glass space called the Tower, this 153-room-and-suite hotel in Manhattan’s NoMad neighborhood harks back to the Gilded Age, when it was a home and carriage house. In the early 1900s the building was sold, eventually becoming the Second National Bank , a five-story Renaissance-palazzo-style structure designed by McKim, Mead & White, the architectural firm behind New York’s original Pennsylvania Station and the Brooklyn Museum .

Step inside today and you’ll see a shimmering lobby with chandeliers, walls paneled in antique mirrors, marble flooring and cabinets replete with curiosities. The interior design by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio is at once playful and sumptuous, featuring tapestries and walls saturated with colors and patterns. The guest rooms mix old and new with antiques, Murano glass chandeliers and wardrobes inspired by traditional Chinese cabinets.

Going out to eat in New York is a must. But the chef Andrew Carmellini , a James Beard Award winner known for restaurants like A Voce, Café Boulud and Locanda Verde, tempts guests to stay in. The hotel’s Café Carmellini is his take on modern Italian and French cooking, with a menu that includes dishes like black bass forestière and cannelloni of lobster and golden osetra. Afterward, drop by the art-filled, wood-paneled Portrait Bar , with an atmosphere inspired by Italian villas, for a drink by a fireplace. Prices from $895.

Charleston, S.C.

The 25 rooms, suites and residences in this stylish boutique hotel are spread across three buildings in downtown Charleston, including two from the Victorian era. And they are ideal if you want the amenities of a hotel and the flexibility of a vacation rental. All rooms have full kitchens, as well as washers and dryers. Some have French doors leading to private balconies and terraces. You’ll hardly want to hole up in your room, though. An outdoor terrace off the main lobby has a fireplace that invites you to pause after exploring the neighborhood’s romantic streets dotted with gas lamps, historic architecture, boutiques and restaurants.

Alternatively, wander over to the hotel’s Lequeux-Williams House, a Greek Revival-style building that the hotel says dates to 1834. Formerly a private residence, it has been repurposed into restaurants overseen by the chef Jason Stanhope , the winner of a James Beard Award for Charleston’s popular Fig restaurant. They include the Quinte , an oyster bar and cocktail spot (you can order seafood towers, soups, sandwiches and ice cream, too), named for a 1918 billiards hall that was in the same location. Or try Lowland , a tavern with inviting dining spaces spread over two floors, including an outdoor dining area on cobblestone that’s hundreds of years old. Wherever you sit, you can tuck into comfort food like a biscuit with farmer cheese and pepper jelly, or a burger and fries. Prices from $399.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

Open Up Your World

Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

52 Places:  Why do we travel? For food, culture, adventure, natural beauty? Our 2024 list has all those elements, and more .

Mumbai:  Spend 36 hours in this fast-changing Indian city  by exploring ancient caves, catching a concert in a former textile mill and feasting on mangoes.

Kyoto:  The Japanese city’s dry gardens offer spots for quiet contemplation  in an increasingly overtouristed destination.

Iceland:  The country markets itself as a destination to see the northern lights. But they can be elusive, as one writer recently found .

Texas:  Canoeing the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park can be magical. But as the river dries, it’s getting harder to find where a boat will actually float .