At the beginning of the 1980s, Stefan Knüpfer completed his piano building apprenticeship at Steinway & Sons Hamburg. After a further six years of training as a concert technician he worked in many countries all around the world. His responsibilities included elaborate repairs, concert service, working for recording sessions as well as for major international piano competitions.

In 1999, Stefan Knüpfer moved to Vienna where he was the chief technician at “Steinway in Austria” until 2017. For a period of 12 years one of his many challenges included the “search for the perfect sound” in the Wiener Konzerthaus. This search led to some intense collaborations with some of the world’s best pianists.

Some of his work was documented in the feature film “Pianomania”, which was shown in cinemas worldwide and won numerous prestigious awards.

Stefan Knüpfer has been self-employed since the beginning of 2018.

In addition to collaborating closely with many renowned pianists and working for major concert halls and festivals as well as exclusive private clients, he gives seminars and lectures around the world. These often extend beyond the traditional confines of piano making. “After all, a piano is only human – what musicians can learn from their instruments” is the title of one of his lectures and describes the complex relation between the sound of a musical instrument and the psyche of its players.

In order to have more technically flawless instruments available to artists in the future, Stefan Knüpfer has set himself the goal to further train and promote young, highly motivated and talented piano technicians.

Alongside this undertaking, it gives him great joy to realize his vision of the piano duo project with Annemarie Schindler, a great supporter of young pianists.