Local pianist Vroni Holzmann played to huge applause from the audience who gathered to watch her play in Waverley Station, as she was filmed for The Piano on Channel 4.
She played the Bumble Boogie by Jack Fina explaining that she likes to play quite spontaneously on her street piano which she takes all over Europe in a van. Some of the footage in the programme shows her busking on The Royal Mile. As soon as she started to play the two judges Mika and Lang Lang said they were both amazed by her energetic playing.
Chinese pianist Lang Lang, commented that this particular piece is extremely tiring to play – and even after only eight bars it makes your wrists really sore as it is so intensely packed with notes. The judges also said the Edinburgh episode was of the highest standard ever and eventually decided to take not one but two pianists from Edinburgh to play in the concert. The first chosen is Ukrainian pianist, Daria, who learned to play on a sketch of piano keys on a piece of A4 paper, and who fittingly played music about freedom – Libertango.
The other is a ten-year-old pianist called Sum who played a Haydn piano sonata – and who arrived with a copy of Lang Lang’s book under his arm. 10-year-old prodigy Sum wearing his bow tie covered in musical notes was the “best child prodigy the judges have ever seen” according to Lang Lang (and he should know as he played his first concert aged five. As soon as Sum had finished playing, Lang Lang rushed out to the station concourse to say hi to the young musician who said Lang Lang is his favourite musician.
Vroni is from Bavaria, and studied for a Masters in music at University of Edinburgh after graduating with a BA (Hons) in Photography, Film and TV. The Edinburgh Reporter first interviewed her in 2011 when she played some of her own music on the grand piano in The Balmoral especially for us.
Vroni said she was delighted to be a part of the show and has written of her experience on her blog. She said: “Once they had concluded filming at the station they got in touch to film some background footage. For this the lovely film team came to my house for a home interview.
“We also loaded the piano into the van, so it could be filmed on the Royal Mile. The next week we met up again, and this time we had sought permission to play on The Royal Mile and filmed the unloading action as well as me playing. The Royal Mile is a great place to busk but it was February! It was absolutely freezing. This never happened before and it won’t happen again that I play my little streetpiano outdoors in winter. But I had promised my friend Vicky to say yes in case the film team asked. She thought the world should see this madness where you put a piano into a city centre and play it, then load it up again and drive away with it. So for Channel 4 this little piano came out of winter hibernation and it actually sounded really good.
“I am actually very grateful that this performance meant I would have to rehearse for months. This is something I should do before every tour and then never manage to do enough. There’s always a photo exhibition to prepare or a cartoon to draw, and it’s a tricky task to fit in any piano practice until I go touring in the summer. So this was an amazing opportunity to spend my winter practising my piano.”
The Piano continues Sundays, 9pm, on Channel 4.
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Thank you for this story. It is truly great to see Vroni in such illustrious company as Lang Lang, Mika and Claudia Winkleman. Vroni is well known to us here at Edinburgh University, where she completed her Masters degree some years ago, having branched from photography, at which she also excels. I had the especial joy of meeting up with her and a mutual friend last year on our pilgrimage to Bayreuth in my capacity as Chair of the Wagner Society of Scotland. Vroni drew crowds in the main square of Bayreuth, as she also does in the Meadows at Edinburgh and across the streets of Europe with her unique brand of stride piano and other pieces. We witnessed first-hand Vroni’s magic skill in persuading strapping local blokes to unload her piano from the van, and later to load it back in, in great humour. A real national treasure, Vroni recently nationalised as a Scot and she is a vital part of the fabric of Edinburgh musical life.
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