A crowdfunder has now been launched to raise at least £10,000 to build #Pianodrome in the Botanics later this summer. In return for a donation you will get a selection of gifts according to the amount you pledge. This could be anything from a signed piano key to a piano removal to any Edinburgh address.
#Pianodrome is a sculpture, an acoustic concert venue, a lecture theatre and musical instrument.
The lead artist is Tim Vincent-Smith who will make #Pianodrome, a 100 seater amphitheatre made from 50 discarded pianos. Tim told us when we visited his studio that he had been inspired by the Anatomy Theatre at the University of Edinburgh Medical School.
He is working with Matt Wright the producer to bring this idea to life. The #Pianodrome house band SiNK (they are two of the members of SiNK) is the creative force and will be playing during August in the new music space.
There will be whole and working pianos embedded in each wedge of tiered seating.
The first wedge was completed in December last year and used in a one-off event at Custom House in Leith. You can see how the first wedge was made here.
A geodesic structure will be put over the top of the amphitheatre which allows it to be put up and then taken down again and again. Tim explained to us that he had worked one summer for Dave Bates who owns The Famous Spiegeltent. We interviewed Dave and one of the most fascinating aspects of the tent is that every modular piece can be carried by one person. Using this as his model, Tim has constructed the first wedge with exactly that in mind : that every wedge can be taken apart, moved and then rebuilt very easily.
The idea is that it will be a completely unique sculpture which can be used to create music for and by people of all ages and music abilities. It will be a musical instrument and a performance place for everyone.
Tim said: “This is a radical reimagining of what the piano is and can be in today’s throw away culture. We are taking fabulous old instruments that have been condemned to the rubbish tip and turning them into something new and astonishing. This will spark our collective imagination and release a cascade of creativity which will be highly entertaining and at the same time good for the environment.”
“No piano is junk. No person is ‘unmusical’. The Pianodrome is a musical instrument and performance place free for everyone. All you have to do is play – and I don’t just mean the piano.”
A crowdfunder to build the first #pianodrome by @PianodromeLive is now – live! https://t.co/ZP0Lzk5Rk3 pic.twitter.com/DbCbQ95j5Z
— Edinburgh Reporter (@EdinReporter) March 19, 2018
Using the Pyrus Lawn at Inverleith House in the Botanics as a site is regarded as a way of bringing the wooden pianos back to somewhere famed for its trees, so there is an element of highlighting the environment too.
Matt Wright who is the producer behind #Pianodrome told us : “We have partnered up with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and before we build it in from of Inverleith House we need to raise some money. But we are also using the opportunity of the Edinburgh International Science Festival to show people what we will bring to Edinburgh in August.” Matt has previously organised parts of the Science Festival including the Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire which he started in 2012. Since then he has co-founded The Forge at Fountainbridge where the community maker space attracts hundreds of people all wanting to learn wood and metalworking skills.
The plan is to take #Pianodrome around the world to parks and cities. These two are extremely talented and multi-skilled individuals. Having seen the first part of #Pianodrome it is a very clever but also quite beautiful idea.
You can donate until 14 April 2018 to the #Pianodrome by clicking here.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
