PIANOS: BEST JOINS WITH BIGGEST

Industry Icon Steinway & Sons Inks Agreement With Pearl River, China's Leading Piano Maker, to Build New Essex Models

     TOKYO – April 2 – Steinway Asia, LLC, the Asian arm of world-renowned piano maker Steinway & Sons, and Guangzhou Pearl River Piano Group, Ltd., China's most prominent piano manufacturer, released a joint announcement today of the signing of an Agreement. The companies will start development work immediately on several new models of the Essex piano line, designed by Steinway & Sons for affiliate company Boston Piano Co., Inc. It is expected that the new pianos will reach the marketplace early in 2006. This will be Steinway's first such venture in China and Pearl River's first OEM relationship with a traditional Western piano maker.

    Zhi Cheng Tong, Chairman of the Board of Pearl River, expressed his delight with the new arrangement, calling it the "…perfect marriage between the best-known, highest quality piano maker in the world, and the largest, most-recognized piano manufacturer in China." Steinway Asia's President, Robert Dove, agreed.

    Steinway brand pianos, long the musical standard on the world's concert stages, have been handmade in the company's own factories in New York since 1853 and in Hamburg, Germany since 1880. Steinway, through its affiliate, Boston Piano Company, has been enjoying tremendous success having other brands – which it designs at its New York headquarters – mass-produced on an OEM basis in Asia. “The efficiencies in the modern Pearl River facility will enable the production of pianos priced in a considerably more competitive range than previously available,” said Dove. "This is the way we can bring a good measure of Steinway design benefits to more affordable brands and to an even wider reach of consumers, just as we have been doing for the last 15 years with our Boston and Essex brands.” All Steinway-designed lines are marketed and distributed exclusively through Steinway's organization of 180 authorized dealers worldwide.

    "Not only is this a good business venture for both companies, but Pearl River expects to learn much from working with world famous, 152-year-old Steinway & Sons to benefit pianists," said Tong. While both companies emphasized that there would to be no mixing of the products from each other's established traditions, each agrees it will benefit by its relationship with the other. "It has taken us 18 months of talks to arrive at this Agreement,” continued Tong. "We both have our own unique backgrounds, but we both will grow through this experience."

     It is believed that, when successfully executed, this formula will not only benefit the consumer but will also become an excellent foundation for both parties’ and enhance further cooperation.

For more information, contact the following:

Ø     In Guangzhou: June Wang, Pearl River – 86-20-81509328/81501742

Ø     In New York: Leo Spellman, Steinway & Sons – 1-718-204-3116

Ø     In Hamburg: Werner Husmann, Steinway & Sons – 49-40-8539-1112

Ø     In Tokyo: Robert Dove, Steinway Asia – 81-3-5251-6550

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