James Barron, writing in the New York Times, continues his series on the Steinway company and the making of a grand piano. He discusses recent financial difficulties of the parent company, due to lagging piano sales and foreign competition in the musical instrument industry. The union contract for Steinway workers was to expire, and the bond rating had been downgraded. However, by the time of the article, the situation seemed to be improving.

He also describes continuing work on the grand piano that is the focus of the series, including a detailed explanation of the failure of attempts to modernize traditional methods.

For additional information from the Loper website about grand pianos and a listing of the articles in this series, please see A Piano in the Parlor.

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