1938-1984 : The first generation

In 1938, Albert Maene and Zulma Doutreloigne established their piano shop in Esen near Diksmuide in Belgium. Father Maene was an organist and music teacher and he gave private notation and piano lessons. He also rented some rooms with pianos where students could practise. Mother Maene excelled in business dealings and thus they both constituted a brilliant duo for the running of their piano shop.

Close to the piano shop, the organ builder, Mr Jozef Loncke lived, from who taught Albert Maene the art of tuning pianos. In addition to that, the piano dealer and restorer, Mr Pierre Labyt from Bruges familiarised Albert Maene further with the piano business. Finally, also the Antwerpian piano builder, Mr Guido Vancauwenberghe passed his knowledge on to Albert Maene.

A few important milestones during this period were:

■1947 Move to Ruiselede, Aalterstraat 27
■1958 Albert Maene builds a study carillon
■1960 Selling of upright and grand pianos Kawai
■1969 Chris Maene builds his first harpsichord
■1971 Acquisition of the brewery “De Molen” in the Aalterstraat 4. This will become the showroom
■1972 Official Yamaha dealer
■1973 Chris Maene makes his entry in the business
■1975 First fortepiano replica: copy of a Johannes Daniel Dulcken
■1984 Chris Maene becomes Managing director of Piano’s Maene – opening of a new showroom

11984-2004 Chris Maene turns the company into an international player

As from 1984, Chris Maene took over from his father Albert and came to be in charge of the business.

He created a further bloom and expansion of the activities. With artisanal tradition, he was able to build a workshop filled with specialists, some of whom which enjoyed training in Hamburg, Berlin, Poland, Tokyo and Paris. What’s unique about Piano’s Maene, is that it is the combination of a piano business, a workshop and a collection of historic instruments. That way, the shop can guarantee a complete service to their clients: selling, maintaining, tuning, restoring and building pianos. No other piano shop in Belgium offers a similar service.

A few important milestones from this period were:

■1989 Opening of a new workshop for building and restoring instruments, in the Industriestraat nr. 5
■1990 10th staff member joins the firm
■1990 Start selling digital pianos
■1994 Opening shop in Brussels
■1994 Maene pianorent : concert rental en rental to private persons
■1995 20th employee joins the company
■1998 Move to Industriestraat 5
■2000 Official ”Steinway & Sons" deamer
■2000 30th employee joins the firm
■2001 Opening shop Ghent
■2002 Exclusive Steinway & Sons importer

2004-now : continuous growth and investment

In 2004, the two sons of Chris started to work in the company. With Dominique and Frederic Maene, the third generation is also active.

Meanwhile, over 40 people guarantee an excellent service: tuners, consultants, transporters, administrative services and all of the workshop members who are responsible for maintaining, building and restoring instruments. The three shops sell about 1200 piano’s on an annual basis. Furthermore, over a thousand pianos, rented to individuals, are in circulation. Yearly, somewhat 850 concert rentals take place. The biggest concert halls, such as the Concertgebouw Brugge and the Brussels Bozar, like to call upon the instruments and services of Piano’s Maene. After all, we dispose of three Steinway concert grands and four ½ grands. Furhtermore, we rent some of the historic instruments of the collection of Chris, which consists of over 150 instruments. These instruments are used during concerts as well as during cd-recordings.

When the building in the Aalterstraat became too small, Piano’s Maene moved in 1998 to the Industriestraat 5. Ten years later, in 2008, this building also proved to be too small, whereupon the workshop and the showroom moved to a bigger location in the Industriestraat 42. With its 5200 m² Pianos’ Maene is one of the biggest piano centers in Europe today.

A few important milestones from this period were:

■2004 Start of Doutreligne pianos and harpsichords
■2006 Building of the very first Steinway replica: the "Steinway N°1"
■2008 Move to new headquarters, Industriestraat 42
■2009 45th employee accepted. Award Trends Gazellen West-Flanders
■2009 Investments for the workshop : 3D Cad Software (Top Solid), horizontal presses, vertical presses
■2010 Investment in new ERP-software Navision
■2010 Workshop Chris Maene builds replica of Chopin piano : een concert grand Pleyel from 1843
■2010 Workshop designs a design grand piano : the Doutreligne Seven. First introduction at Interieur Kortrijk