Elianne Schiedmayer
Oral History Information
Elianne Schiedmayer proudly serves as the CEO of the Schiedmayer company. Since 1735 Schiedmayer has been at the service of music, building keyboard instruments of the highest craft. In 1809 the company settled in Stuttgart, Germany, and quickly gained worldwide reputation for its pianos and harmoniums. Schiedmayer started manufacturing the celesta as early as 1890, four years after Victor Mustel has invented and patented this new orchestra instrument. In 1980 the company decided to cease piano production and to focus completely on the celesta. When her husband passed away unexpectedly in 1992 Elianne took over as CEO and became later the sole owner of the company. She has helped guide the company in the computer age and advanced the marketing during the era of global expansion. While the Mustel company and other manufacturers discontinued the celesta production Schiedmayer stayed the course and became today worldwide the only manufacturer of the celesta.