Estonia Piano Manufacturers Information

The Estonia factory was founded in 1893 by Ernst Hiis

The Estonia pianos come from the Republic of Estonia, a country in northern Europe located on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The first written evidence of piano making in Estonia dates back to 1779; from 1850-1940 there were nearly 20 independent piano manufacturers, including Rathke, Astron, Moritz, Sprenk and Hiis. The Estonia factory was founded in 1893 by Ernst Hiis, the Grand Old Man of country's piano making. In 1950 he was asked by the government to combine other smaller factories. For the next 40 years the company was state-owned and made two grand models (190 and 273) in ebony or white finishes. In 1993 the factory was privatized to its managers; the following year 49 pianos were made. Imported into the US by Mr. Paul Vesterstein for ten years, factory is grateful to him for his marketing efforts of the Estonia pianos in the USA.

In 1995, Indrek Laul, at that time a doctoral piano student at the Juilliard School in New York, set a new goal for the factory: to bring these grand pianos into a world-class, highest quality musical and professional level. The factory underwent grand makeover: new 5-foot model was started, wood finishes and exotic wood tones were introduced, many hundreds of improvements and advancements on all piano models were implemented.

By 2001, Dr. Laul became the sole owner of the piano factory. His parents, Venno and Reet Laul, both professional musicians, joined the factory in 2002 to head the quality control and to be members of the stockholders committee. By 2003, a new factory building was completed and opened, the present facility underwent remodeling, plus years of personnel training and new machinery started to show major musical results in the quality of pianos. In 2004 alone, over 200 newspapers worldwide wrote articles about the success of the piano factory. The same year the factory made 396 pianos - a growth of 8 times since 1994.

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