Albert Weber, Jr.

Biography

Albert Weber, Jr. was born in New York in 1858. He received a finished education and training as a practical piano-maker, and at twenty-one was called upon to take over the large Weber business following his father Albert Weber, Sr.'s death in 1879. Under his management, new progressive ideas were introduced into the instruments from 1880 onward. In 1883 he established Weber Hall in Chicago, formally opened with a grand concert at which pianist Mme. Madaline Schiller exhibited the Weber piano; the Weber house claimed to be the first New York piano manufacturer to establish a direct Chicago branch, as early as 1880. He pushed Weber instruments into new markets in the South and West, toured the Continent with Sternberg and Wilhelmj, and exhibited the Weber piano at the 1887 American Exhibition in London and at the recent Paris Exposition, winning praise from European critics and social honors from literary and art circles. By the time of writing he was preparing to open a new, larger Chicago wareroom on Wabash Avenue.

Highlights

• Took over the Weber business at age twenty-one following his father's death in 1879
• Established Weber Hall in Chicago in 1883, making Weber the first New York piano house with a direct Chicago branch (opened as early as 1880)
• Toured the Continent with Sternberg and Wilhelmj and exhibited the Weber piano at the 1887 American Exhibition in London and the Paris Exposition

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 229, 230, 231, 232.

Public domain.