Skip to main content

JUNO Pianos

In addition to all the fun of JUNOfest, those of us who like pianos were treated to the JUNO Pianos concept, inspired by Luke Jerram's Play Me, I'm Yours installations worldwide. Instead of having pianos on the street, JUNO Pianos featured 12 pianos in locations around Ottawa available for anyone to play. I found and played the Yamaha in University of Ottawa's Tabaret Hall and the Steinway grand piano (woop!) in Carleton University Art Gallery

After playing in Tabaret on Wednesday 28th, I and the other people in Tabaret Hall were treated to a semi-impromptu concert (well, announced on Facebook) by some U of O music students for a few piano pieces, a flute sonata, violin solo and an opera song!

The Steinway at Carleton University Art Gallery

Saturday afternoon and a cycle ride to Carleton to meet some friends at the Art Gallery to play on another JUNO Piano, this time an antique Steinway grand. I'd not been to Carleton University Art Gallery before but it's a really nice place (building and contents!). The sound from the piano carried all around the gallery, which is on 2 floors. The whole JUNO Pianos experience was great fun, and I believe that the piano at Carleton is actually in the gallery normally. Very interesting... 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pigeon Funk

Notes on a very random purchase. Earlier today I acquired Venetian Snares 'Rossz Csillag Alatt Sz ü letett ' purely on the basis of the language and artwork. Its certainly something different - and most definitely not pop. After a bit of searching: Venetial Snares is, according to Wikipedia, the performing name of Aaron Funk, who seems to specialise in experimental tracks in odd time signatures. Article here . The sleeve notes for this album (whose title is Hungarian for 'Born under a bad star') poses the question: what if, for just a day, we could both be pigeons? Interessant. Apparently this concept (a day in the life of a Hungarian pigeon) is non-typical of Venetian Snares sound, but one could ask, does Mr Funk do 'typical'? On first listening, the sound of this CD mixes classical/traditional Hungarian sounds and breakbeats. but aside from that? Definitely a 'listen for yourself' artist; try the website , fan site or myspace .

Mini update

I have finally sorted out my site links to reflect some new/renewed interests and my current location. We have something of a National Arts Centre bonanza shortly: I had already booked to see Angela Hewitt on 16th Feb but found a good ticket offer on LivingSocial.com to see Radu Lupu this coming Wednesday, 26th. In addition to all that, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross (his recent book, Listen To This , is excellent, as well as his previous tome, The Rest Is Noise ) is giving a talk there on 13th February. This is all followed in March by a complete about turn to the Bronson Centre to see Finnish band Apocalyptica . They have been somewhere on my radar for a while but I was spurred on to book tickets after a bout of nostalgia. M and I were regular visitors to Wolverhampton UK to see various bands at Civic Hall/Wulfrun Hall; a few months ago a mutual friend posted on that there Facebook thing about seeing said Apocalyptica at Wulfrun Hall. Nostalgia for the venue and renewed intere...

ECM+ Generation 2012 plus Voltaire and Frederick

I bought tickets for last night's ECM+ Generation 2012 concert, featuring Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, at the NAC 4th Stage in an 'it'll be interesting' frame of mind, and interesting was just the start. A very full 4th Stage for a very entertaining and intruging evening. In order of performance, the four new works were: Animaris Currens Ventosa by Marielle Groven ; Ninavanjali by Gabriel Dharmoo ; Beatitude by Riho Esko Maimets ; and Jenny's last rock by Annesley Black . Each performance was preceded by a Q&A with host Nicholas Gilbert, who injected the whole evening with humour. In terms of immediate response, I most enjoyed Beatitude , a concise, intimate and very beautiful concerto for violin and ensemble. Following on from Maimets' explanation, his references to choral music and music of all different time periods were clear. This piece would easily sit alongside more 'traditional' chamber repertoire in a programme.  Maimets...