From 20 March – 31 May 2025, the mjf piano trail competition will see 16 free to access street pianos dotted throughout Manchester. Available for everyone within the wider manchester community to play, our mission is 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 will also see 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 invites you to get creative, have fun and make music for Manchester. Whether it be an original composition, your favourite song, jazz, or any other genre – we want to hear it!
The 16 pianos will be 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’ll be 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
Full line-up of activities alongside the piano trail include:
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
Commencing on 20 March, the search for Manchester’s hidden talent is back.
How to Enter
1) Find one of our 16 pianos dotted across Manchester
2) Film yourself (5 minutes maximum) playing a song of your choosing. Jazz? Something a little different? Original compositions? A cover of your favourite tune? We want to hear everything and anything. But most importantly we want to hear something that brings you joy – that you love to play!
3) Upload your musical creation to your Facebook, Instagram or X Feed. For entries to be considered, please make sure to tag mjf (@manchesterjazzfestival @manjazzfest) and use the hashtag #mjfpianotrail2025. This step is really important to ensure we don’t miss any entries.
4) The competition closes at midnight on Saturday 31 May 2025
5) Winners to be announced and showcased across our socials at the beginning of July.
Prizes to up for grabs so far 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 this 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
