And in a way I really ended up doing all of those things! My dad played by ear and I was fascinated by it! I was a late bloomer, started lessons at 8, but was always interested in so many things! I missed my first piano recital because of softball and pleaded with my dad when I was in the fourth grade to let me quit piano! He was stubborn and unrelenting in his opposition to my plan so I had to stick with it! As far as a career choice, I knew in high school that I would study either engineering, theology, or music. What drew you to the piano, and what caused you to choose music as your profession? Thank you, Paul, for this interview and for your beautiful playing and words. When I approached him, Paul graciously agreed to be interviewed for No Dead Guys and responded to my (sometimes personal) questions with depth and eloquence. Through our correspondence, I've met a pianist who lives what he believes, plays from a place of deep integrity, and is eager to discuss topics as wide-ranging as music, Greek Orthodoxy, and fine red wine. Here, in this program that incorporates chant from multiple religious traditions, I was finally able to find a way to describe what I heard in his playing: he believes in (and plays from) a place of holy mystery. Barnes possesses both, along with something that I wasn't able to articulate until I watched his virtual performance of his most recent project, A Bright Sadness. Many pianists are drawn to minimalism, but it requires someone of Barnes' ability to capture both the structural underpinnings and the music's ability to "change one's perception of time and reality" (to quote Barnes). At present there is probably less than a few hundred makers in the whole world, with China most likely having more piano factories than any other country.I've admired Paul Barnes' playing since I heard the recording he made of Philip Glass' Annunciation with the famed string quartet Brooklyn Rider. Thousands of piano manufacturers have come and gone since the beginnings of this magnificent instrument. Most pianos then and now are sold to average income families. But high quality means a higher price tag. Now of course, a few dealers were not using this practice, and were just using their name on the pianos in order to advertise their company.Īlthough, quality piano makers like Steinway and Baldwin also probably hated seeing all those cheap bad pianos being pawned off on the public. So it makes sense that they would order cheaply built instruments. One reason being that these pianos were usually much lower quality, and who wants their name on junk? As for the people using a stencil name, they were quite often very deceitful. It seems that the companies building the stencil pianos refused to place their names anywhere on the instruments. And force the makers to put their name on their pianos. And during the first 20 years of the 1900's well known makers like Baldwin and Steinway tried to get the government to pass a law to stop this disturbing practice. Nowadays there are enough trade name laws that make it very difficult to get away with this. Most of these bogus attempts to rip off the actual makers name happened in the early part of the twentieth century. One example of an actual stencil is Steinvey, which looks almost like Steinway. Some piano dealers were that devious(and maybe some still are). Sometimes these names were misspellings of famous companies with the intentions of capitalizing on the famous name. A stencil piano is one made by various piano makers for companies or individuals who place or stencil their name on the front of the piano. We have also made an effort to avoid stencil piano names on this list. And keep in mind that while this list is quite long it still does not contain all piano brands that have been made since the history of the piano began around 1700. Most likely though at least 75% or more of these names will never be seen again on a piano.
![smith and barnes chicago piano smith and barnes chicago piano](https://www.harpgallery.com/photos/er/piano11-28-18play14.jpg)
It's possible that in the future some will be used again. Many names are owned by various existing piano companies that are not currently (2012) using some of them on their instruments. Many piano company names on this list are no longer used and the makers in some cases have been out of business for years.
![smith and barnes chicago piano smith and barnes chicago piano](https://www.harpgallery.com/photos/er/piano11-28-18play13.jpg)
This listing contains hundreds of pianos in it's long history of manufacturing. There is also a huge number of piano brand names.
![smith and barnes chicago piano smith and barnes chicago piano](https://www.harpgallery.com/photos/er/piano11-28-18play8.jpg)
This page contains a huge list of piano makers and manufacturers.