
Immediate Past President John Rydman and his wife Lindy, alongside Yefim Bronfman.
Already the owner of two New York Steinways, the Houston Symphony has long desired the acquisition of a Hamburg Steinway. In the orchestra world, the ability to offer a choice of between a New York and Hamburg to visiting guest artists is standard practice for any world-class orchestra. During the 2023-24 Season, the Symphony was able to realize this important initiative from our strategic plan thanks to an extraordinary gift from John and Lindy Rydman of Spec’s Wine’s, Spirits, and Finer Foods/Spec’s Charitable Foundation.
So how do you choose an instrument that satisfies such a starry array of the world’s greatest ivory-ticklers? We called on six-time Grammy-winning Israeli-American piano superstar Yefim Bronfman to go to the Hamburg factory where Hamburg Steinway pianos are handmade and asked him to test-drive a selection of the best new pianos made in the world today. A frequent guest and dear friend to the Houston Symphony, Mr. Bronfman was the perfect artist to select one just for us!

Yefim Bronfman plays one of the nine pianos under consideration.
And that’s precisely what the Houston Symphony did. In September 2024, a Symphony delegation comprising then Executive Director/CEO John Mangum, Immediate Past President of The Board John Rydman and his wife Lindy, Houston-based Steinway Representative Amanda Watson, and the Symphony’s piano technician Christa Andrepont met Yefim Bronfman at the Hamburg factory.
Steinway handpicked nine pianos that they felt were of the right quality, and were ready for Bronfman to “test drive.” Maestro Bronfman then proceeded to take an hour to play a series of excerpts on each of the nine, covering many different composers and periods of music, including classical piano standards from the likes of Rachmaninoff, Mozart, and Chopin. From nine, Bronfman narrowed the field down to three, of which everyone agreed there was indeed a front-runner.

A close-up of the Hamburg Steinway insignia on the selected D Concert Grand Piano.
Having winnowed down the field, everyone took a dinner break to “reset their ears.” When they returned, Yefim Bronfman played a new set of excerpts on each of the three finalist pianos, and the group selected the winning model (which surprisingly was not the aforementioned "front-runner").

The Houston Symphony’s new Steinway grand piano selected and shipping arrangements finalized, the group was given a tour of the factory, where every piano is still entirely handmade, and the original US patents for each part of the piano is framed on the wall in each room where that part is assembled.
The Houston Symphony is grateful to John and Lindy Rydman and Spec's Wines, Spirits, and Finer Foods/Spec's Charitable Foundation for making the acquisition of such a remarkable instrument possible. —Eric Skelly
Christa Andrepont, Yefim Bronfman, John Rydman, Lindy Rydman, John Mangum, and Amanda Watson pose outside the Hamburg Steinway Factory.