Leeds Piano Festival 2024
31 August - 21 September
Pianodrome were honoured and excited to return to Leeds this Autumn as ‘Artists in Resonance’ with the Leeds International Piano Competition. In addition to favourite piano sculptures from the Leeds Piano Trail ‘21 including the Piano Cube and The Elephant in the Room new commissions including a Piano Bike and Resonance Room delighted more than 2.5 million of the good people of Leeds and beyond. Alongside this we made a series of upright and grand piano planters bursting with flowers, herbs and grasses. Thanks to Besbrode Pianos for beautiful old (unfixable) pianos and penthouse workshop space, to Kew Gardens for funding and advice and to all the wonderful local growing communities who helped design and build the planters and filled them with plants and adopted them afterwards.
Scattered in public places throughout the city and open for all to enjoy, this colourful trail of piano sculptures bursting with life lead to the grand Brodrick Hall at the Leeds City Museum where, courtesy of the Leeds International Piano Competition our beloved Old Royal Pianodrome had its spectacular English debut.
Rounds of the renowned classical piano competition were streamed live into the hundred seater amphitheatre made entirely from pianos for all to enjoy with high quality sound, free of charge and in a relaxed atmosphere. Daily free lunchtime concerts, workshops and happenings as well as chance meetings and public pianos played by all and sundry animated the space which was be curated throughout the festival by our team of friendly and helpful volunteer ‘Pianimators’. Three new public pianos, tuned to resonate in harmony, were embedded into the three Pianodrome ‘wedges’ of tiered seating specially for the festival each with a different sized keyboard to suit different sized hands, small, medium and large.
On Saturday evenings a series of special live ticketed events co-curated by the Competition and Pianodrome went go off like fireworks featuring Lucy and Brad, winners of Channel 4’s The Piano and Pianodrome creators S!nk who hosted their new show ‘How to Play a Pianodrome’ to a packed and appreciative crowd.
Heralding the coming of the festival, the competition and the trail was a unique exhibition of photographic prints; fantastical clandestine portraits of abandoned pianos in dilapidated mansions around the world, by artist/pianist Romain Thiery. This can still be found, free of charge, outside the upper circle of he Brodrick Hall at the Leeds City Museum.
The Leeds City Museum is open Tuesday - Friday 10 - 5pm | Saturday/Sunday 11 - 5pm.