About Piano News

Piano News

Piano News — full title PianoNEWS – Magazin für Klavier und Flügel — is the German-language specialist magazine for the piano, published bimonthly by the Staccato-Verlag since 1997. Founded and led as editor-in-chief by Carsten Dürer, it combines the musician's journalism with the industry's information: portraits and interviews of pianists from classical, jazz and entertainment music, instrument novelties, manufacturers and dealers, composers and publishers of piano literature, reports from German and international piano festivals and competitions, CD, book and sheet-music reviews, and workshops for professionals and amateurs — the piano world's complete magazine. The sold circulation is stated at 22,100 copies, the distributed at 20,000. The ISSN (print): 1434-3592 — the magazine's bibliographic identifier, the 1997–2020s volumes' registered title in the German music press. The magazine can also be subscribed as an e-paper.

Overview

Piano News is a German-language music magazine devoted exclusively to the piano and the grand piano, published bimonthly (six times a year) by the Staccato-Verlag. It has appeared since 1997 and is led by its founder Carsten Dürer as editor-in-chief, the piano journalist's personal and continuous leadership. The programme: the pianists' portraits and interviews — from the classical concert artists to the jazz pianists to the entertainment musicians — the instruments' news — the new pianos and grands, the manufacturers and the dealers — the literature's news — the composers and the publishers of piano literature — the events' reports — the German and international piano festivals and competitions — the reviews — the CDs, the books, the sheet music — and the workshops — for the professionals and the amateurs in classical and jazz. The portraits and interviews are the magazine's heart: the artists' careers traced, the interpretations discussed, the personalities revealed — the classical stars and the jazz improvisers given the long-form treatment the daily press denies them. The instrument news serves the buyers: the new models' features, the manufacturers' strategies, the dealers' services — the piano as the craftsman's product and the musician's tool. The literature news serves the players: the new urtext editions, the rediscovered works, the publishers' programmes. The event reports serve the scene: the competitions' results, the festivals' highlights — the piano world's calendar documented. The reviews serve the collectors: the recordings judged, the books assessed, the sheet music recommended. The workshops serve the practitioners: the technique taught, the styles explained — the professionals and the amateurs addressed in their respective languages. The readers: the pianists, the piano teachers, the piano lovers, the industry — the German-speaking piano world's musicians and enthusiasts. The pianists — the professionals — read the magazine for the colleagues' portraits and the instruments' news: the career insights, the piano market. The piano teachers — the music schools' and private studios' educators — read it for the literature and the workshops: the teaching repertoire, the methods. The piano lovers — the amateurs — read it for the reviews and the workshops: the listening guidance, the playing improvement. The industry — the manufacturers, the dealers, the publishers — reads it as the market's mirror and advertises in it as the market's forum. The circulation: 22,100 sold, 20,000 distributed — the piano magazine's substantial reach, the German-speaking piano world's households and institutions served six times a year.

History

Piano News's history begins in 1997: the Staccato-Verlag's founding of the piano magazine under the editor-in-chief Carsten Dürer. The 1997 founding year's piano world — the post-Cold-War competition circuit, the Asian piano boom's beginnings, the CD's golden age — gave the new magazine its material: the pianists' generation of the 1990s interviewed, the instruments' novelties reported, the recordings' flood reviewed. The magazine's archive — the 1997–2020s issues — is the piano world's recent history: the artists' careers documented from the breakthrough, the instruments' evolution traced, the competitions' winners recorded. The Staccato-Verlag's second magazine — Ensemble – Magazin für Kammermusik, published bimonthly from 2003, also founded and led by Carsten Dürer, with a distributed circulation of 18,500 — expanded the house into the chamber music: the portraits and interviews of the ensembles, the festival and competition reports, the reviews. Ensemble called itself the world's only magazine devoted exclusively to chamber music — the string quartets, the piano trios, the lieder duos given their own journal. The 2003–2014 run — eleven years — covered the chamber music's boom: the young quartets' rise, the festivals' growth. The 2014 discontinuation — the chamber-music market's limits — left Piano News as the house's sole magazine: the piano's audience proving larger and more durable than the chamber music's. Ensemble was discontinued in 2014, leaving Piano News as the Staccato house's flagship. The e-paper subscription — the digital edition — brought the magazine into the online age, the print's companion for the screen-reading piano world. The 25-plus years' run — from 1997 through the 2020s — spans the piano world's transformations: the CD's decline, the streaming's rise, the Asian pianists' dominance, the competitions' proliferation.

Coverage and Content

The magazine's programme is the piano world's journalism. The portraits and interviews: the pianists from classical, jazz and entertainment — the concert artists, the improvisers, the crossover musicians. The instrument news: the new pianos and grands, the manufacturers — the Steinway, Yamaha, Fazioli, Bechstein, Bösendorfer, Kawai — and the dealers. The literature news: the composers and the publishers of piano literature — the new editions, the urtexts. The event reports: the German and international piano festivals and competitions — the Chopin Competition's rules and prizes (the €40,000 first prize), the German piano prize's finals. The reviews: the CD, book and sheet-music columns — the recordings assessed (the Géza Anda Beethoven/Brahms/Liszt edition reviewed in 2008). The workshops: for the professionals and the amateurs — the classical and jazz playing, the technique. The journalism is the music specialist press's: the knowledgeable, the enthusiastic, the industry-near.

Organization and Ownership

Piano News is published by the Staccato-Verlag and led by its founder Carsten Dürer as editor-in-chief — the 1997 founding's personal continuity, the piano journalist's magazine. Dürer's piano-world roles extend beyond the magazine: the jury member of the Internationaler Deutscher Pianistenpreis (whose grand finale traditionally opens the Frankfurt Musikmesse in the Alte Oper) — the competition's artistic judgement shared — the Staccato Verlag's special prizes at the Anton Rubinstein International Bachelor Piano Award in Düsseldorf — the young pianists supported. The magazine's industry embeddedness — the editor as the competition juror — is the specialist press's credibility: the piano world covered by one of its own. The commercial model is the music specialist magazine's: the subscriptions — the print and the e-paper — and the piano industry's advertising — the manufacturers, the dealers, the publishers, the festivals. Detailed ownership and staff information beyond the founder-editor is not publicly confirmed in the sources available.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website is pianonews.de — the official web presence with the subscription (including the e-paper) and the issue information, the print magazine's digital shop window. In the German piano-press landscape Piano News occupies the specialist-magazine pole: the 1997-founded Staccato journal — the Carsten Dürer editorship, the 22,100 sold copies, the ISSN 1434-3592 — from Stuttgart to the German-speaking piano world, in print and as e-paper, for the pianists and the piano lovers. The specialist-magazine positioning — the piano exclusively, the six-times-yearly depth — distinguishes it from the general music press: the Fono Forum's breadth, the concert guides' listings. The founder-editor's continuity — the 1997–2020s Dürer leadership — is the magazine's identity: the piano journalist's personal project, the industry's trusted voice, the competitions' jury member. The e-paper — the digital subscription — is the magazine's future: the print's 22,100 and the screen's growing share.