‘WHEN it first started, it was all a bit pie in the sky.”
That’s how Tim Vincent-Smith, one of the founders of the Edinburgh-based Pianodrome, describes his initial feeling of fulfilling a dream to build an amphitheatre out of old pianos.
Now, six years on from its initial foundation, Vincent-Smith and his bandmate Matthew Wright have gone international, helping to build a venue for a community festival in North Carolina.
Builders from the Scottish capital have already made their way over to the US to show locals the intricacies and skills that come with building the USA’s first pianodrome.
Speaking from North Carolina, Wright told The National how their current project came to be.
“We were running our Fringe programme in August 2019 and one guy came up to us and said he wanted to build a pianodrome.
“He seemed pretty serious and we’ve been speaking to the people running Charlotte SHOUT! For three years now.”
Vincent-Smith and Wright launched their first mini amphitheatre in Fountainbridge in 2017 before going on to bring larger venues to the Royal Botanic Gardens, The Pitt and Old Royal High.
Those to head across from Scotland to help with construction include Emily Martinelli, Tom Nelson and Anthony Ravelo.
But just what is it that makes them so special? Wright explained: “I knew this was a project that could be impactful. It inspires so many emotions. The pianos have these amazing histories and people have very personal relationships with them.
“I think it speaks to the environmental crisis as well and then obviously the music and dance that is performed in them is stimulated by the space and the way we run it.”
The venue in Charlotte will be stationed inside one of the city’s oldest surviving churches – the Grace AME Zion Church.
Although Covid has meant there have been some delays to the international project, Wright admits that it wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
He explained: “It’s wild actually. Covid meant we had a lot of time to set up weekly Zoom meetings and plan things with Charlotte.
“Having that time to plan and think about how the business will do its thing has been a real boon for us because it may have otherwise just meant carrying on doing Fringes and this boom and bust mentality which is a bit of a stressful way of thinking.
“It’s not necessarily smooth sailing, it’s a complex project so there’s lots of stuff coming along with what we do so it’s exciting to be going international.”
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The festival in Charlotte is set to run from March 31 to April 16 and weaves together artists, photographers, chefs, musicians and poets.
As well as working out in Charlotte, Pianodrome is also running their “adopt a piano” scheme out of Ocean Terminal in Edinburgh.
Vincent-Smith, who plays in a band alongside Wright, explains that the amphitheatres are built out of pianos which are no longer fit for purpose and therefore suitable to be deconstructed.
He explains that as a musician looking for a “dream space”, he discovered that many pianos were being sent to landfill sites.
He told The National: “We’ve now taken on a lot more pianos that aren’t just going to landfill sites.
“People are getting in touch to say they’ve had it in the family for generations but there’s no space for it anymore and nobody plays it so they want us to find a good home for it so we’re taking any and all.
“We’ve got about 70 or so at the moment and we’re putting them all up for adoption so people are welcome to come along on Thursdays between 10 and 2 or on Saturday between 12 and 4.”
Those who head over to Ocean Terminal will be able to try out a piano and then make a donation if they are able to give the pianos a new home.
“The best case scenario is not to make them sculptures but to stop them going to the dump and actually putting them to use”, Vincent-Smith added.
“In 20 years, people will wake up to the fact that if you don’t care for these things then they just disappear so we’re trying to bridge that gap between the enthusiasm for keyboards and the realisation that we need a community of people to look after these instruments.
“It would be a tragic loss if they were all just do disappear but if you just offer a bit of space then there’s loads of enthusiasm.”
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