1995

At Bechstein's the receiver was sent in, and following the public outcry a rescue plan was devised.

1995

Steinway Musical Properties Inc. was sold by the Birmingham brothers of Boston to a group of Wall Street investors.

1995

About this time, the Pearl River piano company of China and Yamaha Pianos of Japan went into a joint venture. They set up a company called Yamaha-Pearl River. This company was set up to make certain "Eterna" models that are exported to Europe and the USA.

1995

The Selmer Music Instrument Company, owned by Dana Messina and Kyle Kirkland, paid $100 million for Steinway & Sons in 1995, and it went public a year later, trading under the name of LVB.

1995

In July 1995, Kimball stopped making grands, and its production of uprights at this time was largely done by Baldwin.

1996

Steinway is now fitting Herrburger Brooks actions in their upright pianos.

1996

Steinway Musical Instruments went public in August 1996 and is now trading as LVB (Ludwig Von Beethoven) on the New York stock exchange, opening at $19 a share.

1996

In February, Kimball pianos of USA was wound up. The furniture and piano action divisions in the US and UK are still intact. Also, Kimball International's division, mainly Bösendorfer, is unaffected by these changes. However, in October 1996 Kimball sold the action divisions Herrburger Brooks, England, to Harmony Pianos of Hong Kong.

1996

On April 6, in Sacramento, CA, Music Systems Research, the manufacturer of America's best selling player piano system, Piano-Disc, announced the acquisition of the bankrupt Mason & Hamlin Piano Company assets.

1996

Bechstein went public, winning many private shareholders, though Schulze and his family are still major stockholders. Since 1997 the shares can be bought at the stock exchange "Freiverkehr Berlin," Bechstein being the only German company to be successfully traded at the "Börse."

1997

A new Broadwood barless piano design was patented and launched at a seminar at the Royal College of Music. The Millenium range of pianos was announced, incorporating the barless upright.

1997

Dietrich Heinrich Dotzek of Sweden took out a patent for a magnetic assisted upright piano action, patent number GB 2331831. The magnets assist the jack to return under the hammer butt notch, thus giving you a faster repetition with no extra weight added to the touch as would be if a spring was used for the same purpose. The patent was filed in 1997 and published in 1999.

1998

In September, Herrburger Brooks of England, the action maker, went into administrative receivership.

1998

On Saturday, December 12, The US International Trade Commission started an investigation into the competitiveness of the US piano industry. This was because piano imports from China, Japan, Indonesia, and South Korea were in excess of 62,480 in the first nine months of this year.

1998

Broadwood celebrated their 270th anniversary.

1998

Edward John Mason, working for Broadwood, took out a patent for an improved capo bar, to improve the tonal quality of the last twenty notes of a grand piano. The patent was filed in 1998 and was published the following year.

1998

On December 28, Steinway Musical Instruments Inc. acquired Kluge, Europe's largest manufacturer of piano keys. The purchase price was three million Deutsche marks. Kluge, Which has key-manufacturing plants in Wuppertal, Germany, and Wilkow, Poland, jointly have a turnover of six million Deutsche marks.

1999

Baldwin, the US piano maker, was to lay off 180 workers at their Conway plant. This represents three-quarters of the staff at the Conway plant. Conway was opened in 1957. This streamlining was to help them fight off the Asian imports. Baldwin's share of the market has dropped in the last few years. They had sales of $98.1 million for the first nine months of 1998, down from the first nine months of 1997, which had sales of $103.6 million. By consolidating operations at the Trumann plant in north-eastern Arkansas Baldwin hopes to save an estimated $2 million a year.