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. Our mission is to expand the current network of street pianos enabling us to reach new venues, boroughs and communities across Greater Manchester all year round. This will ensure more people have the opportunity to play and enjoy music-making, no matter their age or ability.
The piano is for everyone. It has the ability to connect with and move people and through these street pianos we can celebrate ordinary people doing something extraordinary – delighting, surprising and inspiring others with their music-making, and this in turn enriches our cities, communities and all our lives.
Although there was a rise in online piano lessons and people buying pianos during the pandemic, there has also been a decline in public access to pianos in venues, pubs and schools, leaving a gap and lack of opportunities for people to hear, play and enjoy them, so…
In 2022, manchester jazz festival, in partnership with Forsyth, launched a piano trail across Manchester city centre with a view to making music accessible to all. This year there are 16 pianos across Greater Manchester in the run-up to and during manchester jazz festival’s piano trail for anyone to play – the number growing each year. Many venues have also kept the pianos for the benefit of everyone throughout the year, and with Forsyth’s help, places such as Piccadilly and Victoria Stations, Trafford Palazzo and the Lowry Outlet ‘Quayside’ have hosted pianos all year round. Now it’s time to expand the trail to something bigger and better, beyond the festival itself…
Our aim is to grow the piano trail, in partnership with Forsyth’s, and reach new venues, boroughs and communities across Greater Manchester all year round, not just during the festival, to ensure more people have the opportunity to play and enjoy music-making.
Sourcing, servicing, delivering and then ongoing maintenance of the pianos or indeed replacing them (Piccadilly Station is currently on its third piano in as many years due to intensive use it gets!) is no small job. We need your help to make Manchester’s street pianos an ongoing and sustainable asset, for everyone to enjoy. With your support, we can install more pianos in more locations across Greater Manchester and encourage the next generation of piano players to rise and shine.
£20-£45: to replace individual piano strings
£100: to tune a piano
£125: to re-brand pianos for promotional use
£200: to service a piano
£300: to move a piano to a new venue
Please donate now and if you’re interested in becoming a host venue for a piano or have a piano to donate to the trail, please contact festival@manchesterjazz.com
Gift Aid is a government scheme that allows us to reclaim the basic rate tax you pay as a UK taxpayer. It means that we can claim 25p of tax for every £1 you donate at no extra cost to you. All you need to do is make a Gift Aid declaration.
This is my own money, I am a UK taxpayer and understand that if I pay less income tax in the current tax year than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on my donations it is my responsibility to pay any difference. Gift Aid is claimed by manchester jazz festival from the tax you pay for the current tax year. The money that we claim back from HMRC as part of the Gift Aid scheme will be treated as unrestricted funds and used to support our general work, even if your original donation was made towards a specific project.
All of the money raised will go towards the installation, maintenance and branding of the pianos, with some going towards the administration of distributing and tracking these funds between manchester jazz festival (mjf is a not-for-profit registered charity No. 1130000) and Forsyth to run and promote the piano trail all year round.
The aim is to install pianos in all 10 Greater Manchester boroughs by 2030 and encourage cultural engagement and outreach with local communities and people in all these areas through offering free, inclusive and accessible means to play music via the pianos.
All piano venues will be responsible for the safety and security of the pianos and for reporting on their annual footfall at the host venue/space, as well as the level of engagement with the pianos themselves and feed into a wider report for manchester jazz festival and Forsyth to aid additional funding and press opportunities to help support the expansion of the piano trail.