Studio 49

Studio49 is a German manufacturer of musical instruments founded in 1949, predominately those used within the Orff Schulwerk approach to music education. Before the Second World War, composer Carl Orff and his friend Karl Maendler - a harpsichord maker - had built the first xylophone that became indispensable for teaching at the Güntherschule and for the development of Orff's Schulwerk. After 1948, the Schulwerk, with its foundations already laid way back in the 1920's, suddenly became popular. The Bavarian Broadcasting Company had aired some Schulwerk programs and started a deluge of questions about where to get these "Orff instruments". Carl Orff developed a relationship with Studio 49 founder Klaus Becker-Ehmck, and the demand for these instruments came very quickly. Studio 49 would eventually expand to include the manufacture of professional orchestral instruments such as vibraphones, marimbas, concert xylophones and tubular chimes.