Pianodrome

Pianodrome We create unique playable, community-centred sculptures made entirely from otherwise disused pianos. You can play it and sit in it. You are the music.

Pianodrome is a 100 seater amphitheatre made from 30 upcycled upright pianos.

07/02/2025

We’re over the moon to announce that we have been awarded multi-year funding from !!! This will help us to plan for the future in ways we have never managed to before, to build on recent successes like our Adopt a Piano scheme and to help us one day find a permanent home for the Pianodrome Amphitheatre in Edinburgh.

Huge credit must go to Creative Scotland for recognising the potential of small cultural organisations to make huge positive impacts. Creative Scotland have done great work advocating on behalf of artists and culture and we’re chuffed to bits to have this core funding secured for the next three years.

Over the last 7 years we have developed from project to project; articulating new ideas, saving over 600 pianos from landfill, working with hundreds of artists and welcoming tens of thousands of participants into to our community-focused interactive spaces.

Thank you to the local and international communities who have supported and believed in the Pianodrome thus far. We’ll continue to strive towards our conviction that no piano is junk, and no person is unmusical! 🎹🍾

01/02/2025

We have a range of great Saturday shows coming up at Pianodrome in Feb - kicking off with some Iranin folk/ trad music next week (8th)! Lots of great performances to come! See Pianodrome.org for more info 🎹

Stop by on any Saturday; the shows start at 4pm!

Donations of any amount accepted after the show; never pressured but always greatly appreciated.

See you at the warehouse! ✨

25/01/2025

Tomorrow we will have our 2nd annual apple tree Wassail event! We were waiting to post to see if the weather would allow it, but it seems that we are in luck 🍎

Join from 10:30am - 12:30pm for Urban Gardening: help us look after the apple trees.

Join from 1pm - 2:30pm for a lunchtime concert & Wassail: Gig in the pianodrome followed by a procession to the urban Orchard and Wassail I.e. singing at and blessing the apple trees 🍏 🍎

All help is greatly appreciated. See you then!

07/01/2025

We don’t have many shows this month, But we have a couple piano playing gems from our community playing this Saturday!

To open, Georges will be playing some piano solos, followed by Thomas Et Al treating us to a Mendelssohn concerto! 🎹

See you there! ✨✨

28/12/2024

Final showroom opening of 2024 for Adopt a Piano ! What an incredible year… we were open every single Saturday in 2024 ✨ Thank you so much to all of you who have visited, your support is what makes it possible 🎹🫶

06/12/2024

HEGEDU - a new contemporary folk quintet will join us on Sat Dec 14th! This show will start a 5pm, a little later than usual so please make note! This is not one to be missed 😊

Hegedu are a brand-new contemporary folk band based in Edinburgh who play a very quirky and exciting take on folk-fiddle music.

Drawing not only from Scottish sources, but also Scandinavia, Southern and Eastern Europe as well as Classical Chamber Music and even Early Music, the band has already gained a lot of attention for their ambitious and original sound.

With 3 harmonising violins, cello and guitar, the music is rich, angular and exciting but always melodic and fun and is bursting with daring arrangements and exciting fiddle-playing.
The project features the violinists Isla Ratcliff, Morag Brown and Chris Lyons, the cellist Robin Mason and the guitarist Jack Weir.

Please note, this performance will be at 5pm! See you there! 🙌🎻

26/11/2024

This Saturday at Pianodrome we have performing as part of the “Fair Saturdays Scotland”; an initiative started in Bilbao-Bizkaia (Spain) responding to social, environmental and economic challenges through the synergy of Culture, Social Empathy and Science!

Curlew (Gill Higgins, she/her) is a celtic alt-folk multi
instrumentalist. She incorporates acoustic string, wind and
percussive instruments, field recordings, synthesisers and
loop pedals. With ethereal vocals and grounding drones, she
explores the interaction of nature and machine, and the way
that music can unite strangers.

“...it is a nigh on silent packed audience that is hooked as
she skilfully and beautifully blends layers of
vocal and music
through use of loop pedals.
Switching between harmonium and keyboard,
her set is a bewitching one...” - Geoff Shaw, Resound

18/11/2024

Our next Concert will feature Ed Williams on Harpsichord with Anouck Genthon on Violin as Improvisational duo “Decompositions”.

A reminder again to Please wrap up warm for our winter shows :)

Decompositions for Duo is a series of improvised, collaborative process-pieces in which pieces of early music are taken apart, expanded and explored by the duo Ed Williams (harpsichord) and Anouck Genthon (violin).

The fruit of several years of collaboration, the duo hones a delicate, sensitive and cathartic approach to improvising that encompasses their collective musical languages across Baroque, Contemporary Classical, and Noise, as well as Touareg traditions.

15/11/2024

Wrap up warm and come to the warehouse for some Neo-classical pieces by this Saturday, Nov 16. Featuring her versatile music which can be streamed anywhere 🙌

Nadia Summer is a versatile Scottish-Palestinian artist, carving a distinct lane for herself as a classical pianist, DJ, composer and producer. Whilst growing up in Spain, Nadia’s musical journey began when she started playing the piano at the age of seven. This early connection to music became a means of expression, communicating her feelings through original piano compositions which later inspired her melodic and emotive electronic productions.

04/11/2024

will grace the Pianodrome with his ever luminous improvisations at our first Saturday
Afternoon show in November!

Paul Taylor is an accomplished pianist and keyboard player specializing in improvisation. The music is evocative, alluring and unique; combining unusual harmonies and sonorities with an original and fluid technique.

In recent years, he has emerged as one of the most consistently interesting and innovative solo pianists, eschewing the conventional cliches associated with jazz improvisation in favor of an unorthodox, harmonically complex and often compellingly beautiful musical language that is often inspired by the classical tradition.

Nonetheless, his playing also encapsulates the restless capacity for invention that is a cornerstone of jazz.

Paul Taylor was a 2018 northern line R6 ambassador artist supported by Jazz North, using public funding from Arts Council England.
He also participated in Cheltenham Jazz Festival’s prestigious Creative Lab collaborative sessions in April 2021.

For more info check out the event-brite page 🙌

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/paul-taylor-tickets-1048737942417?utm_experiment=test_share_listing&aff=ebdsshios

21/10/2024

We’ll welcome and her brilliant 5 piece band back at the Pianodrome this Saturday!

British-New Zealand singer-songwriter Lydia Bennett released her debut album entitled ‘Fossil’ June 2024. A self-released record with production by Phil McBride of Sonic Lodge, Edinburgh.

Lydia is a former singer of Tinderbox Collective, performed at Kelburn Garden Party, Generator Live, and the Cluny in Newcastle. She has also opened for Kris Drever, Kathryn Tickell, and Brother’s Gillespie.

Her haunting vocals take you through honest stories told with support from double bass, accordion and electric guitar lines which meld perfectly.

5 years ago Lydia played a special gig at the Pianodrome and is excited to be returning October 26th, 4pm to share songs and stories from the album, as well as hints of what’s to come.

“One of the things that makes Bennett so special are her vocals, which are as pure as a mountain stream. She also pens the kind of pop/folk melodies that are resplendent with the subtlest of hooks.” - The Crack, May 2024

We can’t wait!

14/10/2024

The Afternoon Concert series continues with next Saturday, October 19th 🎶🎹

Piano lovers are in for a treat as Karolina’s program features delights from Chopin, Mozart, Rachmaninov and Philip Glass! We’re very excited 👏

Karolína is an awarded concert pianist and daughter of internationally celebrated, Juno awarded Czech pianist Antonin Kubalek.
She is an alumni of the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Prague Academy of Music, and the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto. Karolina currently makes Glasgow her home and contributes proudly to the UK music community, serving not only as a solo and collaborative artist but also as the artistic founder and curator of the new concert series “Music in the Mearns”. Her exceptional talent garners international acclaim. Karolína’s memorable Prague Spring debut in 2009 left a lasting impression on audiences and critics alike, as recognized in Hudebni Rozhledy - national Czech music magazine.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

06/10/2024

Our Saturday 4pm free concert series returns to the Granton warehouse, Oct 12 with performing song from their debut album to celebrate its launch.

A three piece indie, folk, pop, rock trio - lifegarden share songs about Ecology, love & Existential dread from their debut album titled as such. The album is out now on all streaming platforms and features the Pianodrome’s Tim Vincent-Smith on Viola in the track Breathe.

lifegarden was started by Pip trying to use music to join the conversation about Climate Collapse and its intersection with our lives. The inspiration came from seeing the 1975 perform at laneway festival in Melbourne. They played a speech by Greta Thunberg to a crowd who just lived in what was briefly the most polluted city in the world, due to the smoke of the huge Australian bushfires of 2020. It felt powerful and extremely pertinent to be there at that moment. And so started the quest to forming “lifegarden”. After spending a couple years making music and trying to find the band, lifegarden is now Parasol Wu on Drums, Alex Finlay on Bass and Pip on Vocals & Guitar. We’re doing this for love, community, fun and dopamine; but also to keep the movement and the important conversations alive.

27/09/2024

We’ve got a one-off show coming up in our Pianodrome Warehouse in Granton, Edinburgh - an awesome cross Atlantic collaboration between Scottish folk-pop duo Twelfth Day and the quirky alternative Latin act El Guapo. Expect joyous, thought provoking, rhythmic and harmonically diverse sounds all wrapped up in the warm and delightful embrace of the Pianodrome.

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04/09/2024

Coming up tomorrow in the Pianodrome at Leeds City Museum - a free lunchtime concert with Simeon Walker, host of the wonderful Brudenell Piano Sessions and stalwart proponent of piano culture across the UK.

Bring friends and family or just drop in on your own to soak up the calm and reflective musical mood.

30/08/2024

The Pianodrome looking fine in the Broderick hall

The big reveal is in 24 hours time!

Address

28 West Harbour Road
Edinburgh
EH51PN

Website

http://pianodrome.org/

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Videos

Artists! Please come to our shows :) Here’s a fly on the wall POV showing our Director, Tim drawing @kayhan.1111 in Japanese ink, while he played the ‘Nay’ (Reeded flute) at our most recent Saturday concert. Next show is next Saturday, usual time (4pm) and usual place :) #pianodrome #art #artists #edinburgh #creativescotland #artandmusic #pianos #nay

Here’s @granahir & @ralmbowfish performing “Waltz from the sleeping beauty suite, Tchaikovsky, arranged by Rachmaninoff for 4 hands” last Saturday! (11th of January) An absolutely delightful show with a brilliant crowd braving the cold! Thanks everyone for coming :)

“Pianosharing” our monthly piano ‘open-mic’ will be on tomorrow at 4pm after our adoption show room which is open 11am - 3:30pm Come and share any pieces you’re working on or hang out and listen :) Dress warm (like you need to be reminded) and we’ll have blankets and tea (etc) available for you 🙌 Playing here is @nadiasummer who featured in one of our Saturday shows in 2024 🎹 #pianodrome #edinburgh #edinburghmuscians #edinburghpianodrome #scottishmusic #whatsonedinburgh #pianos #grandpiano #babypiano #uprightpiano

@hegeduproject were absolutely phenomenal on Saturday with almost a full house totally absorbed! Thank you everyone who made it along! These concerts can only happen with the performer/ audience synergy 🫶🎻 See you next week for our wee solstice party :) #pianodrome #edinburgh #edinburghmuscians #edinburghpianodrome #scottishmusic #whatsonedinburgh #pianos #grandpiano #babypiano #uprightpiano #violin #hegedu

@curlewmakesmusic played Harmonium and Piano to accompany herself beautifully but here’s a solo A Capella clip which is absolutely delightful! Again, this event was part in highlighting @fairsaturdayscotland I missed my chance to do the usual end of show Spiel/ announcing as I was directing someone to the loo! HOWEVER, we’ll have our next show at 5pm on Saturday Dec 14th, featuring HEGEDU - a post modern folk string quintet! If you’d like to donate to pianodrome to help us sustain these events (as we do pay the artists via some limited funding) - please visit our website 🫶 Thank you everyone involved so much! Pip x #pianodrome #edinburgh #edinburghmuscians #edinburghpianodrome #scottishmusic #whatsonedinburgh #pianos #grandpiano #babypiano #uprightpiano #kurlew

We had a modest audience due to the weather for “Decompositions” featuring @edwilliamsxyz & @anouckgenthon - Ed was playing Clavichord (rather than Harpsichord) with Anouck on Violin. A unique and mesmerising performance for a humble 20 or so people 🙌 Stay tuned for our remaining 2024 concerts! #pianodrome #edinburghmuscians #edinburghpianodrome #edinburghpianodrome #scottishmusic #edinburgh #whatsonedinburgh #pianos #clavichord

A wee clip of one of @nadiasummer ‘s original compositions to an enraptured pianodrome audience. Stay tuned for a full performance video, captured by @watersidelive #pianodrome #edinburghmuscians #edinburghpianodrome #scottishmusic #whatsonedinburgh #edinburgh #pianos #grandpiano

@devonchriswilcox visited the Pianodrome warehouse and captured these beautifully esoteric, soft, fly on the wall shots of our cafe, the community around Adopt a Piano and @lifegardenband setting up for their Saturday concert (12/10/24). His brief was to capture ‘change’. 🎹🎸 We love this little view showing the beauty in some of our ‘everyday’ machinations. What do you think? ✨ #pianodrome #edinburghmuscians #edinburghpianodrome #babypiano #scottishmusic #edinburgh #whatsonedinburgh #pianos #grandpiano #uprightpiano

@karolinakubalkovapiano treated us to an eclectic programme of Philip Glass, Chopin and Mozart; triumphantly finishing with Rachmaninov! Truly spectacular playing yesterday 🎹👏 Thank you to everyone who came along! More music next week! 19/10/24

The Leeds Piano Sculpture Trail is in full swing… Parkour on the Sinking Pianos Ant playing the Marimba Planter Shona fixing the top of the Piano Cube #parkour #piano #leedsparkour #streetsculpture #leedspianotrail #pianodrome

The Piano Shed is alive! #pianodrome #piano #leedspianotrail #leedspianocompetition #boogiewoogie

Build it and they will come… #pianodrome #piazzola #leeds #leedscitymuseum