'The Music Continues:' Adams Thanks Steinway Factory Workers

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Mayor Eric Adams gave his daily news conference to the sound of whirring tools and machinery on Friday morning.

His usual announcements — COVID updates, health and mental health reminders, a response to accusations of hiring nepotism — were issued at Astoria's Steinway & Sons Factory, where the company's iconic grand pianos are built almost exclusively by hand by a crew of about 350 union workers; a point that Adams and other conference attendees repeatedly stressed.

"[These union jobs are] a symbol of this great place called Steinway where the music continues to play in spite of COVID," Adams said, extending his appreciation to factory across New York City, including those at the Steinway.

"These employees are here, they're working, they're continuing to push through the crisis that we are facing and just really show the resiliency of who we are as New Yorkers," he said (using that as a jumping-off point to call for a return to in-person work and more citywide vaccinations).

Workers at the Steinway factory, located at 18-1 Steinway Place, build pianos over the course of nine months — not counting the two years that the wood dried for beforehand, according to the Steinway website.

After the wood is selected, curved (for the rim), trimmed, and finished, the piano is sent to the fourth floor where workers nail in hundreds of pins to guide the strings.

The strings are then checked by technicians with weights, in order to guarantee that each key moves smoothly; the keys are played up to 3,200 times in order to reach perfection, the website says.

Steinway doesn't list piano prices online, but according to one piano review website, they range from $70,000 to as much as $200,000.