subsidiary industry musical instruments founded 1857 ; 159 years ago 1857 founder dwight hamilton baldwin headquarters trumann arkansas 1 united states distribution china manufacturing 1 key people henry juszkiewicz ceo products pianos parent gibson subsidiaries wurlitzer website baldwinpiano.com the baldwin piano company is an american piano brand . it was once the largest us based manufacturer of pianos and other keyboard instruments . it ceased domestic production in december 2008 moving production to china . baldwin is currently a subsidiary of the gibson guitar corporation . 2 contents 1 history 2 notable performers 3 general references 4 references 5 external links history edit the company traces its origins back to 1857 when dwight hamilton baldwin began teaching piano organ and violin in cincinnati ohio . in 1862 baldwin started a decker brothers piano dealership and in 1866 hired lucien wulsin as a clerk . wulsin became a partner in the dealership by then known as d.h. baldwin & company in 1873 and under his leadership the baldwin company became the largest piano dealer in the midwestern united states by the 1890s . in 1889 1890 baldwin vowed to build the best piano that could be built 3 and subsequently formed two production companies hamilton organ which built reed organs and the baldwin piano company which made pianos . the company s first piano an upright began selling in 1891 . the company introduced its first grand piano in 1895 . a 1905 baldwin ad . a baldwin hamilton manufactured in 1968 . baldwin died in 1899 and left the vast majority of his estate to fund missionary causes . wulsin ultimately purchased baldwin s estate and continued the company s shift from retail to manufacturing . the company won its first major award in 1900 when their model 112 won the grand prix at the exposition universelle in paris the first american manufactured piano to win such an award . baldwin manufactured pianos also won top awards at the louisiana purchase exposition and the 1914 anglo american exposition . by 1913 business had become brisk with baldwin exporting to thirty two countries in addition to having retailers throughout the united states . baldwin like many other manufacturers began building player pianos in the 1920s . a piano factory was constructed in cincinnati ohio . the models became unpopular by the end of the 1920s which coupled with the beginning of the great depression could have spelled disaster for baldwin . however the company s president lucien wulsin ii had created a large reserve fund for such situations and baldwin was able to ride out the market downturn . during world war ii the us war production board ordered the cessation of all us piano manufacturing so that the factories could be used for the us war effort . baldwin factories were used to manufacture plywood airplane components for various aircraft such as the aeronca pt 23 trainer and the stillborn curtiss wright c 76 caravan cargo aircraft . while the employment of wood components in military aircraft could by no means be considered a resounding success lessons learned in constructing plywood aircraft wings ultimately assisted in baldwin s development of its 41 ply maple pinblock design used in its postwar piano models . after the war ended baldwin resumed selling pianos and by 1953 the company had doubled production figures from prewar levels . in 1946 baldwin introduced its first electronic organ developed in 1941 4 which became so successful that the company changed its name to the baldwin piano & organ company . in 1961 lucien wulsin iii became president . by 1963 the company had acquired c. bechstein pianofortefabrik and remained its owner until 1986 . in 1959 baldwin constructed a new piano manufacturing plant in conway arkansas originally to manufacture upright pianos by 1973 the company had built 1 000 000 upright pianos . in 1961 baldwin constructed a new piano factory in greenwood mississippi . subsequently production of upright pianos was moved from cincinnati ohio to greenwood . the company next attempted to capitalize on the growth of pop music . after an unsuccessful bid to buy fender musical instruments corporation baldwin bought burns of london in 1965 for 380 000 and began selling the guitars through the company s piano retail outlets . during this time period baldwin engineer robert c. scherer developed the prismatone pickup for nylon string guitars . 5 unaccustomed to marketing guitars the baldwin stores failed to interest many guitar buyers and sales proved disappointing . 6 in 1967 baldwin also bought gretsch guitars which had its own experienced guitar sales force and a distribution network of authorized retail outlets . however fender and gibson continued to dominate and sales did not reach expected levels . the gretsch guitar operation was sold back to the gretsch family in 1989 . throughout the 1970s the company undertook a significant bid to diversify into financial services . under the leadership of morley p. thompson baldwin bought dozens of firms and by the early 1980s owned over 200 savings and loan institutions insurance companies and investment firms . in 1980 the company opened a new piano manufacturing facility in trumann arkansas . 7 by 1982 however the piano business contributed only three percent of baldwin s 3.6 billion revenues . meanwhile the company had taken on significant debt to finance its acquisitions and new facilities and was finding it increasingly difficult to meet its loan obligations . in 1983 the company was forced into bankruptcy with a total debt of over 9 billion at that time the largest bankruptcy ever . during bankruptcy proceedings in 1984 the baldwin piano business was sold to its management . 8 the new company went public in 1986 as the baldwin piano and organ company . 9 the company went private again when it was sold to an investment group in 1993 for approximately 62 million . 10 however difficulties continued as demographic changes and foreign competition slowed sales of keyboard instruments . the company responded by acquiring wurlitzer to increase market share and by moving manufacturing overseas to reduce production costs . the company moved its headquarters from loveland ohio 11 to mason ohio . throughout the 1990s the company s fortunes improved and by 1998 the company s 270 employees at its conway arkansas facility were building 2 200 grand pianos a year . however in 2001 baldwin was again facing difficulties and filed for bankruptcy once again when the company was bought by gibson guitar corporation . 12 in 2005 the company laid off some workers from its trumann arkansas manufacturing plant while undergoing restructuring . 7 the company now a subsidiary of gibson guitar corporation has manufactured instruments under the baldwin chickering wurlitzer hamilton and howard names . baldwin has bought two piano factories in china in which they are manufacturing grand and vertical pianos . recreations of the former us built verticals are built at its factory in zhongshan china . these include the baldwin hamilton studio models b243 and b247 which are the most popular school pianos ever built . 13 the much larger factory in dongbei is not building pianos at this time . baldwin grand pianos are being built to baldwin specification by parsons music china . 1 all new pianos are being sold under the baldwin name and not wurlitzer hamilton or chickering . 13 baldwin stopped manufacturing new pianos at its trumann arkansas factory in december 2008 . they have retained a small staff to build custom grands and to finish numerous artist grands which are ordered . 2 they are planning to continue production of the pianos as demand picks up . notable performers edit amy lee performing in 2011 . many distinguished musicians have chosen to compose perform and record using baldwin pianos including the pianists walter gieseking claudio arrau jorge bolet earl wild and jos iturbi and the composers aaron copland philip glass igor stravinsky b la bart k stephen sondheim leonard bernstein and john williams . baldwin pianos have been used by popular entertainers including ray charles liberace richard carpenter michael feinstein billy joel cat stevens and carly simon and jazz pianists dave brubeck george shearing and dick hyman . amy lee the lead vocalist pianist and keyboardist of evanescence also uses this brand in most of her compositions recordings and live performances . a baldwin piano was seen nightly being played by paul shaffer on the late show with david letterman . baldwin was the official piano of the television show glee . marian mcpartland s long running radio show piano jazz was hosted by baldwin . 14 baldwin was second only to steinway in its artist and symphony roster . bruce hornsby used a baldwin concert grand until 1995 . general references edit crombie david . piano evolution design and performance . barnes and noble 2000 . first printed by balafon books great britain 1995 . isbn 0 7607 2026 6 baldwin piano & organ company encyclopedia of company histories . answers.com . accessed march 1 2007 . references edit a b the baldwin story at taylor music.com a b baldwin ceases production lays off workers . trumann democrat . december 8 2008 . archived from the original on 2012 03 19 . retrieved 2009 02 11 . baldwin pianos . baldwin piano . retrieved 2014 03 11 . hans joachim braun 1982 . music engineers . the remarkable career of winston e. kock electronic organ designer and nasa chief of electronics pdf . che2004 of ieee . robert c. scherer prismatone inventor . retrieved 2014 11 14 . gj rde per 2001 . pearls and crazy diamonds . g teborg sweden addit information ab . pp. 35 37 . a b kait8 news jan. 7 2005 trumann piano plant lays off workers while undergoing restructuring g.e. credit signs deal with baldwin . the new york times . june 19 1984 . retrieved 2007 12 17 . rothstein eward september 27 1987 . for the piano chords of change . the new york times . retrieved 2007 12 15 . rothstein edward january 29 1993 . baldwin piano agrees to be acquired . the new york times . retrieved 2007 12 17 . company news ; wurlitzer sale to baldwin . the new york times reuters . the new york times company . 1987 12 24 . retrieved 2008 10 25 . gibson guitar to buy baldwin piano . los angeles times . tribune company . 2001 11 02 . p. c2 . retrieved 2008 10 25 . a b piano buyer by larry fine p. 168 . http www.npr.org 2012 08 18 158421073 marian mcpartlands storied life told in good time external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to baldwin piano company . official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title baldwin piano company & oldid 735465237 categories piano manufacturing companiescompanies based in nashville tennesseeeconomy of loveland ohiogibson guitar corporationhidden categories commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutschespa olfran aisitalianot rk e edit links this page was last modified on 20 august 2016 at 22 31 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view