Pianodrome Bruntsfield
Pianodrome Bruntsfield, St Oswald’s Centre, 24/10/25
The Grand ‘Soft’ Opening of the latest Pianodrome took place on a rainy Friday, just around the corner from the myriad cafes of Bruntsfield. The eager audience filed into the ecclesiastical chill of the former St Oswald’s Church on Montpelier Park to be greeted by a beautiful Pianodrome made entirely from un-repairable pianos, with five working upright pianos woven into the structure. The Pianodrome concept will be familiar to those who have visited the ‘Mother Ship’ in Granton and previous pop-ups including Ocean Terminal, the Old Royal High School, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Old pianos are rescued and (if possible) restored and found new loving homes. If a piano cannot be rescued it is dismantled and used to build Pianodromes and huge, beautifully striking sculptures. Over 560 pianos have passed through the Pianodrome since its beginnings in 2016.
The audience settled on the raked seating, not sure what was to come but convinced that it would be extraordinary. We were right.
A beautiful grand piano was wheeled into the centre of the space and the inaugural ‘Pianist in Resonance’ Will Pickvance welcomed us and invited us to choose the first note to be played. After some discussion we settled on E flat, and with audience members at the upright pianos Will led us in a musical meditation on the note, improvising around it and letting it take him (and us) where it wanted to. A spellbound toddler twirled slowly next to Will, eyes closed, enraptured by the sounds and resonances created by the pianos and other instruments.
The upright pianos around the Pianodrome have very different personalities, and Will played the music he felt each one demanded: New Orleans jazz on a feisty German Mittag and Schubert on a patrician Bösendorfer.
Pianodrome inventor Tim Vincent-Smith joined Will for a madcap race through some Schubert songs. Tim and Will had originally intended to play music for violin and piano, but a woodwork-related injury to Tim shortly before the opening necessitated a change of plan. The Pianodrome team is clearly used to improvising.
The Category B listed building itself felt like an instrument, with its wooden ceiling and floor joining the Pianodrome itself to reflect a warm, deep acoustic. Previously in its 125-year history it was a church, and latterly the venue where generations of Boroughmuir High School students nervously took their exams.
Around the building’s interior were strewn pianos in various states of playability. Visitors are encouraged to make a noise on the instruments, and before and after the opening event I saw pre-teens playing and gradually becoming freed from their exam set pieces; babies and tots exploring the space while imbibing music along with their lunch; and people of all ages being transported to a very special place.
Pianist Sean Logan took over from Tim and played one of his synthesizer-influenced compositions. I have not yet seen his appearance on Channel 4’s ‘The Piano’, but I will now seek it out.
Other contributors included Nat Cartier, with his mellow tenor sax and huge fake fur coat, Steven Feast, Matt Wright, and an excellent female singer and several other musicians whose names I could not discover, as there was no programme for this improvised and inspirational hour and a half. How could there have been?
Huge congratulations are due to the Pianodrome team and the St Oswald’s Centre for having the vision, tenacity, and creativity to plant a new Pianodrome in Bruntsfield. Long may it flourish!
The Pianodrome Bruntsfield is open on Friday and Saturday 10am to 5pm.
