Nightmare On My Street

(I'm so glad I found this when I did.)
This Halloween night, I give you:
Der Erlkönig
performed by Anderson and Roe
set in a (haunted) Steinway factory.

HANDS DOWN the best "classical music"-video I've ever seen.
Ooh, I've got the shivers!



This comes from their soon-to-be-released album on the Steinway label - check it out.
(via collabpianoblog)

The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes

That's pianist Yuja Wang performing in a dress that - gasp! - shows her legs!

It turns out people care about (lady)Musicians' Fashion Choices:
Mark Swed at the L.A. Times cares.
Amanda Ameer at Life's A Pitch cares.
Anne Midgette at the Washington Post cares (that other people care).
Sue Gilmore at Mercury News cares.
And of course the Youtube commenters care.


You know what I think? I think she plays the piano beautifully:



(via therestisnoise)

It Is The Future / The Distant Future

Pianos with 102 keys.

This is real life!

Dream / The Impossible Dream

Peter Aidu plays Steve Reich's "Piano Phase."
Not Peter Aidu and friend.
Just Peter Aidu(!)
It kind of makes my head hurt.

Or as my dad says: I can see him doing that trick for drinks in a musicology bar somewhere. Hmm, yes...



(many (many) thanks to Kevin)

Four Tops

Take a deep breath: The Gerschwin Piano Quartet playing Tango-Fugue on a Theme by Astor Piazzolla by Stefan Wirth.



The world needs more piano quartets. I'm certain of it.

(via collaborativepianoblog. If you've never actually clicked through, maybe today's the day!)

Start To Push / Break Your Own Glass Ceiling

Ken Unsworth is an Australian artist who specializes in installation and sculpture works. "I'm not worried about meaning," he said in one interview. "I just like to make these strange things." Strange and often musical - turns out his late wife, an inspiration for many of his pieces, was a pianist. Examples A and B: "Rapture" (for piano, straw, burnt sheet music, and plastic mice) is a sculpture made of keyboard-stairs, and "Piano Trio (Teaching Three Pianos to Sing in Unison)" involves three grand pianos, motorized parts, three metronomes, and sheet music.

And then I give you Example C: Unsworth's 2009 exhibit "A Ringing Glass (Rilke)" includes an installation with twenty-eight toy pianos (I counted) suspended from the ceiling. The Schoenhut tinkle starts at 4:45, but the whole video is worth watching: even in the installations dealing with, oh you know, humanity and life and death and things, sound and music play a huge role:

Take A Bow

"Entrada" by Stephen Scott, performed by the Bowed Piano Ensemble of Colorado College.
Ryan Raul Bañagale (one of the original performers, and co-founder of the blog Amusicology - a favorite of mine, not to mention the place I found this video) points out the pretty intense choreography that necessarily goes along with a piece like this. Not to get back on the "some-music-would-be-perceived-differently-if-you-couldn't-see-the-performance" horse again, but: well, yes. Plus: what sounds! And all of them from a grand piano.

(If I had known about this in college, you can bet I would have tried to make it happen. Or at least thought about trying to make it happen before succumbing to comps.)

Honky-Tonk

The 2010 World Chamionship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest

It was held in Peoria May 28-30, 2010. Meaning: we just missed it. On the upside, that means we get to watch a trailer (soon to be made into a documentary) featuring performances from the weekend!



(via metafilter)

Pictures In An Exhibition

Picasso: Still Life On A Piano

Play Me A Song / You're The Piano Man

Play Me I'm Yours! by Luke Jerram

"From 21st June – 5th July, 60 upright pianos will be distributed across New York City by Sing for Hope. Located in public parks, streets and plazas the pianos will be available for any member of the public to play and engage with....Disrupting people’s negotiation of their city, the pianos are also aimed to provoke people into engaging, activating and claiming ownership of their urban landscape."

New York is the latest in a line of cities (including London, São Paulo, and Sydney) getting the piano treatment - and it makes me giddy-happy. Imagine walking down the street: oh a piano! And you stop to play a little ditty, keep on walking down the street...
If you're in NYC this summer, find one and send me a picture please.

(via boingboing; Montage by Luke Jerram)

(Bonus: scores and pictures of Annea Lockwood's Piano Transplants series.)

The Whole World In His Hands

Less-than-greater-than-or-equal-to six-hands piano (aka piano triet)? You decide.



(For comparison purposes: Exhibit B)

Throw Your Hands Up

Hey Carls, I wasn't responsible for this!
Do you think they made sure the piano was dead? // Do you think they made their friends spend five hours the night before the performance scraping toxic paint off a last-minute substitution instrument? // At least I bought you beer.



(via collabpiano)

How Many Say I

Oh, can you just imagine being in this room! I'm all shivery even thinking about it!

Piano Phasing (for 50 pianists) by Kristoffer Zegers.

(via collabpiano)

Don't Want No Paper Gangsta

HA! I'm so pleased with the title of this post that I think I'll take my bow and call it good. Thank you thank you I'll be here all week!
(In any case, it is REAL.)



(via collabpiano)

Toyland Toyland / Little Girl and Boy Land

(via collaborativepiano)

The Way You Wear Your Hat

Instructables teaches you how to make your very own Wearable Toy Piano! This would be useful. I am sure of it.



(via collaborativepiano)

Let's Take A Ride / On The Countryside

What a classic! Then again, with eight pianos (and what pianists!) in the room, it's hard to go wrong.



(from the Verbier Festival 10th Anniversary Piano Extravaganza)

There Will Be Snacks

Pianotable! Designed by Georg Bohle, this little baby is like something out of a dream. It gives such nuance to the expression: "I would rather play piano than eat, sleep, breathe, or do homework." Maybe that's not a widely known expression.

(via notcot)

Recyle / Recyle / Recycle Rap

Derrick R. Cruz makes necklaces out of recycled piano keys!



(via trendhunter)

Well This Car is Automatic / It's Systematic / It's Hydromatic

AMICA is the Automatic Musical Instrument Collectors' Association. You don't actually have to be a collector to belong, and where else on the web are you going to find this much information about player pianos, roll-playing organs, and orchestrions?

Members also attend conventions. Like the one coming up in July. Just saying.