AFTER a voyage of more than 12,000-miles, York Minster has taken delivery of a brand new concert grand piano.
The instrument has come all the way from China in a project financed and led by Besbrode Pianos of Leeds.
It is a Wilh Steinberg 275 concert grand piano and is being loaned to the cathedral from Besbrode’s for the next two years while the Minster’s grand organ is renovated.
The Wilh Steinberg piano brand was established in 1877 by Adolph Heinrich Geyer at the family’s workshop in Eisenberg in Germany.
The brand is today owned by Parsons Music Ltd, one of the world’s leading musical instrument companies with factories in Germany and China.
The Minster’s piano is one of 16,000 produced each year at the company’s Chinese factory in the city of Yichang.
The factory uses traditional techniques and modern manufacturing processes to produce pianos in high numbers to meet the Chinese and global demand.
The piano will be put to good use at the Minster in the absence of the building’s iconic grand organ which is currently undergoing a £2m renovation - its first major works in 100-years.
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