As we approach September and what would have been our 3rd festival, we wanted to look back briefly and share with you some of the reactions we had to our Young Musician Showcase, which despite being put together at short notice after the cancellation of our fundraising gala, received some fantastic feedback from all those who tuned in to watch.
As of writing this, we’ve had just around 2,600 views between our Facebook and Youtube pages – a staggering amount, and we were so proud to have been able to find a way of bringing music to people at a time when nobody could gather to make or hear music.
Hear are a few comments we received afterwards:
“Wow, what a great experience and very moving, I’m in awe of the amazing technology I’ve discovered during this unusual time, well done”
“Thank you for a lovely evening. Not the same as a live concert but a treat just the same! Well done”
“I REALLY enjoyed the live stream tonight – fabulous young musicians
without exception. Thank you SO much and I look forward to more!”
“Great to see something we would have wanted to go to during this time of not much happening.”
“Brilliant everyone! What a superb achievement. Great to hear some familiar musicians a few steps further into their development.”
“Terrific! The performers, choice of music and informal relaxed style all a great success”
If you felt particularly inspired by our efforts during lockdown, you might want to nominate us for a Royal Philharmonic Society Inspiration Award, which aims to celebrate organisations and individuals across the UK that worked to keep music going and inspire the nation during the lockdown. We’d love it if you would – you can visit the nomination page here!
In the meantime, keep connected with us through Facebook, Twitter or sign up to our mailing list!
During our online concert on Saturday, &Piano was thrilled to announce the launch of our new friends scheme – ’88 Keys’.
It’s a way for followers of the festival to support us even more, by sponsoring a key on our special ‘&Piano’ Piano! A traditional piano has 88 keys, and so we’re offering them all to be sponsored for an annual donation from just £10.
We want to be a music festival for everyone, so we do not want to ask for large donations. However, a small contribution can go a really long way to helping us offer a wider range of accessible & innovative events, in our aims to encourage more people to enjoy & experience amazing live music.
A number of our keys have already been taken since Saturday, and you can join by signing up below – you can request a specific key, but be quick – it might already have been taken!
Join today by visiting our 88 Keys page here.
Our livestream concert was a huge success! It took a lot of hard work to put it together, but it was huge fun! Were you there on Saturday? If you missed us – don’t worry! You can watch it all again right here!
If you feel like offering a donation to our young festival, you can donate here https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/12456
Or if you’d like to sign up to our newly launched ’88 Keys’ friends scheme, you can sign up here https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/12875
We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supports us by donating, sponsoring a Key, and joining us for our events!
We’re delighted to announce that we’ll be Live streaming a special digital concert on April 25th at 7pm (BST), on our Facebook page and Youtube channel!
We were very sad to have had to cancel what was going to be a very exciting fundraising gala, ‘Northward’, due to the COVID-19 situation, but the team at &Piano quickly got together (virtually!) to think of a way they could still celebrate (virtually!).
So, join &Piano Artistic Director Chris Pulleyn on Saturday 25th April at 7pm by visiting either &Piano’s Facebook page or our Youtube channel and enjoy a 40 minute live broadcast (which we hope will work as is being planned!). We’ll share future plans & ideas for the festival, celebrate our charity status, and launch our new giving scheme, around a series of performances, that showcase a number of young talented musicians from around West Yorkshire, accompanied by Chris!
Just as many professional musicians have had so many concerts and performances cancelled, so too have sixth form college and university students had recitals, final performances & end of year celebrations cancelled. This live broadcast will showcase just a few of those, who no longer have those opportunities this year.
We can assure you that this will all be done completely remotely, with no breaching of any government guidelines. How will we do this you might ask? Well, you will have to tune in on your computers, SmartTVs, phones & tablets on Saturday April 25th at 7pm to find out!
Dear supporter,
The ever-changing COVID-19 pandemic has brough with it many challenges, particularly for those of us working in the arts. However, the health and safety of our audiences, artists and supporters is our immediate priority in these troubling times, so it is with a heavy heart that we must announce that our upcoming ‘Northward’ fundraising concert on April 25th is cancelled.
This was going to be a really special evening – a celebration of our recently becoming a charity, the announcement of our upcoming concert series, and the launch of our new giving scheme to help secure the financial future of our young festival, raising funds to support our forthcoming activity.
Fortunately, our costs have been minimal, with most of our amazing artists kindly donating their time for this special occasion. However, we now have no opportunity to fund raise, leaving our future uncertain.
&Piano was established to help strengthen live music and the arts in Huddersfield and the surrounding area. Helping to break down barriers around music, we offer relaxed and informal performances with engaging explanations, and provide valuable performance opportunities for top musicians with local connections. When the worst of the pandemic is over and we can get back to coming together as a community, we will need live music more than ever.
Whilst we might not have a chance to perform for you at the moment, there are other ways you can help us. Tell your friends, work colleagues, and family about us and help promote awareness of our new festival. You can also like our page on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter or Instagram. We will be launching our new giving scheme, with dedicated channels for donations, on 25th April as planned so you can support us in the future, and I do hope you will also attend the events we can hopefully hold as planned in September.
Sharing music with as many people as possible remains our goal, and we are currently thinking of ways to possibly live-stream an alternative event on April 25th. Keep an eye out for further news from us on our social media channels and we hope you will join us for whatever online event we are able to arrange.
With best wishes,
Chris Pulleyn
Artistic Director, &Piano
To celebrate &Piano’s recent charity status, we’re organising a special evening of music featuring 16 singers, 1 violinist and a pianist. Featuring music that evokes our Northern home, we’ll also be performing Vaughan-Williams wonderful ‘Serenade for Music’. The performance will be at The Civic, Slaithwaite on Saturday April 25th at 7:30pm.