Our story

Pianodrome CIC was set up in 2017 by band mates Tim Vincent-Smith and Matthew Wright to build the world’s first amphitheatre made entirely from up-cycled pianos. The delivery of the Pianodrome at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in August 2018, for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, saw 18,000 visitors, attracting critical acclaim and international recognition.  

The Pianodrome has since become an iconic symbol of community and cultural resilience in Scotland’s capital. We were commissioned in 2021 to build a series of 10 interactive sculptures from up-cycled pianos for the Leeds International Piano Competition’s city-wide Piano Trail, winning an award from the Royal Philharmonic Society.

In 2022 we took over the Old Royal Highschool on Calton Hill, where we ran a full-spectrum programme of over 200 shows across 60 glorious summer days.

In early 2023 our first international project saw us working with the Charlotte SHOUT festival to build a Pianodrome in Charlotte, NC in the USA.

In September 2024 we returned to Leeds with a sculpture trail and Pianodrome Amphitheatre installed at the Leeds City Museum for the International Piano Competition bringing piano joy to over 2.5million people.

We currently run piano dismantling sessions, weekly free concerts and our Adopt-a-Piano scheme - a cat-and-dog home for homeless pianos - from our warehouse workshop in Granton. Look around our website for more information - or go to Our Projects for a deep dive in to each of our projects.