Sviatoslav Richter first encountered a CF at a January 1969 concert in Padua, Italy. The CF, along with the simultaneously introduced C3 grand piano, took the world by storm - with a little help from an all-time great. Playing the piano on that occasion was Wilhelm Kempff, who went on to call it “one of the top pianos in the world.” Finally, in November 1967, the CF concert grand piano was unveiled during a banquet at Tokyo’s Hotel Okura. Over the next two years, Yamaha craftsmen-built prototypes that were evaluated by several highly regarded pianists their feedback was then incorporated into further new designs.
Deeply impressed by its facilities and employees, he elected to work with the company on the development of a new world-class concert grand.
In that same year, Cesare Tallone, one of Europe’s most respected piano technicians, came to Japan and visited the Yamaha factory. By 1965, Yamaha was producing more pianos than any other manufacturer. 1960 – 1969Īt the start of the 1960s, Yamaha made a major move, creating a new company in the United States, to import and distribute its pianos. In 1958, Yamaha established a grand piano assembly line at its Hamamatsu headquarters.Ĭomputer-controlled wood drying in the Yamaha factory. In 1956, the company finished work on Japan’s first computer-controlled artificial drying room, where the moisture content of wood - a critical factor for any piano - can be adjusted to the optimum level after the natural drying process is concluded. Encouraged by that model’s success, the company built one new facility after another in its continuing mission to build an even better piano. In 1950, Yamaha released the FC concert grand piano to great praise. In a short time, well-known European pianists were taking notice of Yamaha instruments, among them Leo Sirota andArthur Rubinstein. Schlegel’s advice yielded a superior and improved product. In 1926, the company asked Ale Schlegel, an expert piano technician from Germany, to meet with the craftsmen at the Nippon Gakki facilities in Hamamatsu, Japan to discuss piano making in extensive detail. Louis World’s Fair, where it earned an Honorary Grand Prize.īy the 1920s, Yamaha craftsmen were traveling overseas regularly to learn the latest European piano production techniques. Nonetheless, Torakusu did send one of his pianos to the 1904 St. During this initial period, the company was focused on manufacturing instruments for the Japanese market, where appreciation for Western classical music was still relatively new. Just two years later, the Nippon Gakki factory produced its first grand piano. It was an upright piano made by Torakusu Yamaha, founder of Nippon Gakki Co., Ltd. The first piano to be made in Japan built in 1900. The company's beginnings as a musical instrument manufacturer are still seen today in the group's logo-three of interlocking tuning forks.
Yamaha Corporation was established in 1887 as a piano and reed organ manufacturer by Torakusu Yamaha in Hamamatsu, Japan. Here is a brief history that shows how one man’s dream to craft the world’s finest concert grand pianos came to fruition, thanks to the efforts of a century’s worth of expert craftsmen and musicians. This success story was far from immediate actually, it has been more than a hundred years in the making. The characteristic sound of Yamaha pianos can be heard today in concert halls, recording and rehearsal studios, houses of worship, and in educational institutions worldwide.