From 20 March – 31 May 2025, the mjf piano trail competition saw 16 free to access street pianos dotted throughout Manchester. Available for everyone within the wider manchester community to play, our mission was simple: to encourage everyone to come together and share in the joy of music-making!
In collaboration with our friends at Forsyth Music shop and Yamaha, the mjf2025 piano trail also saw the return of the competition to find Manchester’s hidden talents, with a whole raft of prizes up for grabs including… a Yamaha digital piano!
But most importantly the trail invited everyone to get creative, have fun and make music for Manchester. Whether it was an original composition, a favourite song, jazz, or any other genre – we wanted to hear it!
The 16 pianos were located around the city at: The Arndale Centre, The Corn Exchange, Forsyth Music Shop, Aviva Studios, Home of Factory International, Grand Arcade (Wigan), Great Northern, Harvey Nichols, Manchester Central Library, Manchester Piccadilly Station, Quayside MediaCityUK, Royal Exchange Arcade, Spindles Town Square Shopping Centre (Oldham), Spinningfields, HOME, Trafford Palazzo and Manchester Victoria Station.
play it forward: street piano fund
This year we are joining forces with Forsyth’s Music Shop to fundraise for a bigger and better piano trail with our Play it Forward: Street Piano Fund campaign: to expand the current network of street pianos to reach new venues, boroughs and communities across Greater Manchester all year round, to ensure more people have the opportunity to play and enjoy music-making, no matter their age or ability.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND DONATE
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said: “This city-region has music running through its veins,and helping connect people to new musical experiences and supporting talented musicians has always been so important to us. The mjf piano trail will take music back out onto the streets of Manchester, giving more people the chance to try their hand at playing and to encounter the vibrant music of our city in a unique way.”
Emma Loat, Manager of Forsyth’s Music, said: “For many years, we’ve had a street piano at the front of the Forsyth’s shop on Deansgate, so we know that Manchester and the surrounding areas is full of talented musicians and those willing to have a go. We’re really excited to supply 16 pianos to a growing number of venues for the mjf piano trail and we’d urge all those budding performers to come forward, have a go and be in with a chance of winning some fantastic prizes.”
James Sargeant from Yamaha, one of this year’s piano trail sponsors, added: “We are thrilled to be working with the Manchester Jazz Festival again this year in support of the mjf piano trail 2025. This fantastic initiative enables anyone and everyone to enjoy playing and listening to the piano, in some iconic locations across the city and of course, with the chance to win a Yamaha digital piano this is not an opportunity to be missed! We look forward to hearing lots of new talent which will no doubt emerge during the trail.”
mjf piano trail competition
The piano trail competition has now closed. Full list of winners to be announced over the summer!
Prizes to up for grabs are:
Please click the link here to view the full T&C’s for the mjf2025 Piano Trail competition.
mjf2024 Piano Trail
You can check out last year’s winning entry in the mjf 2024 Piano Trail from up and coming pianist and rapper, Ainsley Vanzyl below:
” I had such an awesome time during the piano trail, I love doing improv in front of an audience and it was so fun to explore Manchester one piano at a time!” – 2024 Winner, Ainsley Vanzyl
We also awarded prizes to 8 highly-talented runner ups:
“Being a life-long jazz fan and someone who has been to every mjf over the years, since 1996 I was keen to take part in my own way. I played a piece that I composed during the covid lockdown called June 2020 on the lovely Yamaha grand piano in Harvey Nichols. I’m thrilled that I have been chosen as one of the winners of this prestigious competition.” Runner up, Phil Portus
