Schiedmayer provides historic harmonium from 1868 to the Metropolitan Opera, New York

Mr. Thomas Lausmann | Director of Music Administration | The Metropolitan Opera:

“In the standard opera repertoire, the harmonium is used in Ariadne, Don Carlos, Rosenkavalier, Rusalka and Salome. Its most prominent role is in Ariadne auf Naxos.

For use in a large opera house or concert hall, a 2-manual pressure wind harmonium is required. These instruments are, of course, no longer made and in America you find mainly smaller reed organ instruments. Furthermore, a harmonium can only be tuned with great effort. We have therefore been looking for a 2-manual pressure wind harmonium tuned to A=440hz in excellent condition.

Thankfully, the Schiedmayer company with its excellent connections was able to find just such an instrument for us.

The J. & P. Schiedmayer, Stuttgart Harmonium with serial number 6385 from 1868 offered for sale by Schiedmayer is in every way ideal for the requirements we have for a harmonium for the Metropolitan Opera. The instrument is in excellent condition and has all the sound possibilities we were looking for.”

https://www.metopera.org/