2024 Piano Trail Festival

31st August – 21st September

BOOK YOUR TICKETS FOR THE PIANO TRAIL FESTIVAL HERE BOOK YOUR TICKETS FOR THE PIANO TRAIL FESTIVAL HERE BOOK YOUR TICKETS FOR THE PIANO TRAIL FESTIVAL HERE

The Piano Trail Festival transforms public spaces into cultural hubs, enriching the artistic landscape of Leeds and Bradford by placing public pianos, piano planters, piano sculptures and a theatre made from recycled pianos in iconic urban locations.

Throughout the festival, there will be a host of free activities:
– Piano lessons
– Days of Play co-produced with community arts organisations
– Pop up performances
– Family Sing sessions
– Play and explore the Pianodrome
– Open mic events
– Piano Trail Treasure Map

Artist in Resonance – Pianodrome

Pianodrome are 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 will, we hope, delight the good people of Leeds and beyond. Alongside this, we have made a series of upright and grand piano planters bursting with flowers, herbs and grass. Thanks to Besbrode Pianos for providing us beautiful old (unfixable) pianos and penthouse workshop space, as well as to Kew Gardens for their funding and advice. This project would not have been possible without all the wonderful local growing communities who have helped design and build the planters and will fill them with plants come festival time.

Scattered in public places throughout the city and open for all to enjoy, this colourful trail of piano sculptures is truly bursting with life and leads to the grand Brodrick Hall at the Leeds City Museum where, courtesy of the Leeds International Piano Competition, our beloved Old Royal Pianodrome will have its English debut.

Festival Programme

The programme is split into four strands – ‘Connect’, ‘Listen’, ‘Learn’ and ‘Breathe’ – to highlight the ways in which the events can aid audience wellbeing.

Audiences can connect through exciting open mic sessions, lively jazz performances at Headrow House, engaging family sing sessions and parent and baby sessions, highlighting music’s ability to bring people together.

‘Breathe’ sessions invite audiences to relax and unwind through soothing soundscapes by Festival Composer in Resonance Ben Gaunt, leisurely walks around the Piano Trail, and Lazy Sunday Afternoons presented by Brudenell Piano Sessions.

Many of the ‘Listen’ events centre around ‘The Leeds’ Sessions, Live @ the Pianodrome. Audiences will also be able to enjoy free lunchtime concerts at the Pianodrome, as well as broadcasts of the Leeds International Piano Competition, witnessing the best young pianists from across the globe.

The Leeds is also offering 90 free piano lessons across the Leeds and Bradford Piano Trails, as well as open play and explore sessions where Piano Ambassadors, artists and volunteers will help members of the public engage and learn piano pieces.

‘The Leeds’ Sessions, Live @ the Pianodrome

Many of the ‘Listen’ events centre around ‘The Leeds’ Sessions, Live @ the Pianodrome:
this specially created 150-seat amphitheatre is built entirely from discarded pianos and repurposed as tiered seating, staircases, balustrades and balconies by LIPC Artists in Resonance.

Pianodrome will be the main venue in Leeds City Museum’s Brodrick Hall. Pianodrome creators, Tim Vincent-Smith and Matt Wright, will host a special Leeds Session, ‘How to play a Pianodrome’, unlocking it as an instrument in its own right [7 September]. Their band S!nk, which was recently featured on BBC Radio 3’s Night Tracks with Sara Mohr-Pietsch, will perform works spanning their 15 years of sonic exploration, as well as a live piano dissection and scintillating performances on pianos turned inside out.