American Piano Company was an American piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 manufacturer located in East Rochester, New York

East Rochester, New York

East Rochester is a coterminous town and village located southeast of the City of Rochester in Monroe County, New York. The village, home to about 6,587 people, is bounded by Pittsford to the west and south and Perinton to the north and east. The southern boundary is delimited by New York State...

, which was known from the beginning for the production of high quality player piano

Player piano

A player piano is a self-playing piano, containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that operates the piano action via pre-programmed music perforated paper, or in rare instances, metallic rolls. The rise of the player piano grew with the rise of the mass-produced piano for the home in...

s. The company was established in 1908 under the aegis of Wm. Knabe & Co. of Baltimore as a merger between Chickering & Sons of Boston, Haines Brothers, Marshall & Wendell, and Foster, Armstrong & Company, all of Rochester, New York

Rochester, New York

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

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From 1913 Ampico was one of the leading producers of reproducing pianos, the others being Duo-Art

Duo-Art

Duo-Art was one of the leading reproducing piano technologies of the early 20th century, the others being American Piano Company , introduced in 1913 too, and Welte-Mignon in 1905. These technologies flourished at that time because of the poor quality of the early Phonograph...

 (1913) and Welte-Mignon

Welte-Mignon

M. Welte & Sons, Freiburg and New York was a manufacturer of orchestrions, organs and reproducing pianos, established in Vöhrenbach by Michael Welte in 1832.-Overview:...

 (1905). The player piano and reproducing mechanism was designed by Charles Fuller Stoddard (1876-1958). A great number of distinguished classical and popular pianists, such as Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...

, Leo Ornstein

Leo Ornstein

Leo Ornstein was a leading American experimental composer and pianist of the early twentieth century...

, Winifred MacBride

Winifred MacBride

Winifred MacBride was a Scottish-born concert pianist who achieved international acclaim in the first half of the twentieth century, particularly for her interpretations of the works of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. Her 1924 concert at Queen's Hall, London, conducted by Sir Henry J...

, and Marguerite Volavy, recorded for Ampico, and their rolls are a legacy of 19th and early 20th century aesthetic and musical practice. By 1929 Ampico was in essential economic difficulties and was finally taken over by the Aeolian Company

Aeolian Company

The Æolian Company was a manufacturer of player organs and pianos.- History :It was founded by New York City piano maker William B. Tremaine as the Æolian Organ & Music Co. to make automatic organs, and, after 1895, as the Æolian Co. automatic pianos as well. The Æolian Company was a...

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External links

• The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation Ampico Catalog This catalog will be confusing to the novice researcher as the roll numbers have all been truncated and are not exactly as found on the rolls.