SCHIMMEL

Founded by Wilhelm Schimmel in 1885 in Leipzig Germany, Schimmel has been producing high-quality pianos for well over 100 years. By the mid 1890s, Schimmel had produced over 1,000 pianos, with increasing attention across Germany, and in the late 1890s, expanded to a much larger production facility. Schimmel’s success continued into the 20th century and was one of a handful of German piano manufacturers to successfully rebound after WWII, and during the late 1950s, Schimmel was the best selling German piano. During the late 2000s, Schimmel endured financial difficulties but was saved by extensive financial restructuring. Pearl River is the current owner of Schimmel after having purchased a 90% controlling interest in the company in 2016.

Schimmel currently manufactures around 3,000 pianos a year, and offers instruments in 4 levels of quality for the North American market; the highest quality Konzert series and second from the top Classic series are both built-in Germany, whereas the less expensive Wilhelm Schimmel line is built in Poland, and the entry-level Fridolin Schimmel (several upright models and one grand model) are built in China by Pearl River.

The differentiation between the Konzert and Classic lines is that the Classic series pianos are based on long-standing designs with good quality materials, whereas the Konzert line designs are much more recent, and incorporate many technological refinements, while also utilizing higher quality materials.