French Forbes III.

French Forbes III. of course took piano lessons as a child, after all his great-grandfather established EE Forbes & Sons Piano Company in 1889. While he grew up surrounded by pianos, French III played trumpet throughout school and managed the store’s band department for over a decade. In 1988, when French III joined the company full-time, the company had four other family members involved and a total of three locations. His father brought in the Steinway brand in 1958, later there was a period of about ten years when they did not have the brand, however, French III reestablished the store as a Steinway dealer in the 1990s. After the close closed in 2009 and his father retired, French III worked for Yamaha for some seven years before coming full circle and working for Steinway selling to institutions such as universities and churches, a segment of the industry he loves working with to this day.