2024 Piano Trail Festival

31st August – 21st September 2024

PLAY OUR PIANOS! PLAY OUR PIANOS! PLAY OUR PIANOS!

The 2024 Festival has now closed…

The Leeds 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.

Artist in Resonance – Pianodrome

Pianodrome ‘Artists in Resonance’ brought their piano sculptures and new commissions (including a Piano Bike and a ‘Resonance Room’) to delight the people of Leeds. We made a series of piano planters bursting with flowers, herbs and grasses, thanks to Kew Gardens ‘Grow Wild’ programme and Besbrode Pianos, who donated beautiful old (unfixable) pianos and workshop space. Wonderful growing communities helped design, build and fill the planters with plants for our festival.

This colourful trail of piano sculptures, bursting with life, led people to the Pianodrome – a magnificent amphitheatre made entirely from upcycled pianos – where 3 weeks of unforgettable performances took place at the grand Brodrick Hall at Leeds City Museum.

Festival Programme

The programme is split into four strands – ‘Connect’, ‘Listen’, ‘Learn’ and ‘Breathe.’

Audiences ‘connect’ through open mic sessions, lively jazz performances at Headrow House, family sing sessions and parent and baby classes.

‘Breathe,’ 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.

‘Listen’ to The Leeds Sessions, Live @ the Pianodrome, including free lunchtime concerts, and broadcasts of the best young pianists from across the globe performing at the Leeds International Piano Competition 2024.

Free piano lessons and play-and-explore sessions with Piano Ambassadors, artists and volunteers help people get up-close to the piano and to start their own piano journey…

‘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.

Pianodrome creators, Tim Vincent-Smith and Matt Wright, show us ‘How to play a Pianodrome’, with their band S!nk, in a sonic exploration and live piano dissection on pianos literally turned inside out.