Happy Piano Day!

Reflecting back over ten years of celebrations of the piano on the eighty-eighth day of the year

“Why does the world need Piano Day?”

Moving quickly beyond the philosophical existentialism that might dictate an answer along the lines of ‘why bother celebrating anything on any given day’ (let’s leave that one for now), Piano Day founder Nils Frahm says:

“Because it doesn’t hurt to celebrate the piano and everything around it: performers, composers, piano builders, tuners, movers and, most important, the listener.”

Well, quite.

It falls on 29th March (or 28th March on leap years) because it is the eighty-eighth day of the year, paying homage to the total number of keys found on a regular sized piano.

It is a great opportunity to celebrate an instrument which I have always believed to be important for many. Lots of people had one in the house growing up, or have a family connection to one or someone who played. Many people play; across genres and musical styles; of varying abilities, but united by a shared love and enjoyment of the variety the piano offers.

Piano Day has always been something I have been very happy to get behind. In the early days, it was really a fairly small affair, and amongst the musical community, it felt like quite a niche thing to be celebrating: a “there go those pianists again” feeling. These were the (good old) days when inclusion on the Official Piano Day SoundCloud playlist genuinely made a difference in relation to reaching more people with your music.

As the years passed, it has grown substantially in terms of the official social media channels, an avalanche of timed releases every years, new compilations, sheet music and of course, many hundreds of related events, concerts, gigs and performances taking place across the world.

Whilst the growth of Piano Day and what it entails, both in the Official Piano Day celebrations and the huge amount of associated add-ons around the world, has been hugely fast and does feel quite different to how it used to, Piano Day still holds a special place in my heart every time it comes around each year. It is important to recognise many good things do change, develop and evolve over time, and this is a great example.

Brudenell Piano Sessions - the piano-centred live music series I founded and curate here in Leeds - began as an experiment 7 years ago on this day in 2018, and we have done a show every year since (apart from 2020, naturally) to mark the occasion, with the event becoming a huge success. Our Piano Day show on Sunday will be our 30th Brudenell Piano Sessions event.

Many live music performances across all forms of music will be taking place on or around this date across the world to make reference to and celebrate this most wonderful and unique of instruments. When you actually think about it, and when you look inside a piano, it is really quite an astoundingly brilliant thing from every aspect.

Imagine a world without pianos.

I don’t think I can.

---

I’m aware there are some of you who have been following me and my work for almost as long ago as the first Piano Day in 2015, whilst there are many of you who are new, and a good proportion of very new subscribers in the last few weeks (hello…welcome!).

Here are the pieces I released to time with Piano Day in 2016, 2017 and 2018:

In 2019, I had one of the best tours I’ve ever had around Europe just after Piano Day. A year later in 2020, and a planned follow-up tour had to be cancelled at the very last minute just prior to that years’ Piano Day.

In 2021, with the benefit of a fair bit more time as the lockdowns just kept on coming, I made this rather nice video for my Piano Day single release that year, ‘Shore’…

But that wasn’t all. More on 2021 to come…

In 2022, the first Official Piano Day Compilation was released by LEITER, Nils Frahm’s label, and I was delighted to have a track of mine ‘Reverie’ be included on this compilation alongside some very dear friends + some guys called Nils, Olafur and Chilly.

Here in Leeds, we have the most amazing piano showrooms and dealer called Besbrode Pianos - four floors of pianos in a huge old industrial building, with one floor dedicated to Steinway. Will and I filmed the following video for ‘Reverie’ in the Steinway showroom…

We also took the opportunity to make a short film in which I talk a little more about why the piano is such a special instrument:

When Piano Day came around in 2023, I was back out on the road playing some shows in Europe, including an especially memorable concert in Düsseldorf. Taking place at The Pool - a former underground swimming pool now operating as art and exhibition space - I played to what was one of the most captive and attentive audiences I can remember; the natural acoustic of this most incredible repurposed space (designed, incidentally, by Paul Schneider-Esleben, the father of Florian Schneider, a founder member of Kraftwerk) providing the perfect sound for the felted piano version of my piece ‘Compline’ which I released last year:

Finally, in 2024 I released a new arrangement of Ravel’s delightful melody ‘Pavane De La Belle Au Bois Dormant’. Rearranged into two distinct felted piano parts and with lovely post-production by Josh Semans, it’s a particularly spacious and reverberant recording:

---

Despite all of the work above, of which I’m very proud, I think the thing which gives me most joy to look back over is an additional project from 2021.

At this point, after a full years’ worth of difficulties and intensely challenging times with the pandemic and being in lockdown for so long over the winter, one of the things which felt most sad was the loss of being able to gather together to celebrate Piano Day.

I thought quite hard, and with some help, created something which I’m very proud of - a collaborative performance video of my piece ‘Absolution’, featuring clips of twenty different people around the world who sent in their versions of the piece. This was after I had made the sheet music available online, and had created some online tutorials for those who didn’t read music.

It was quite a complicated and labour-intensive project, and the kind of idea you look back on and think “where did that come from?”

But however challenging it proved to be, it was all worth it. The final video featuring pianists of all abilities and pianos of all conditions represents the best of what music, and especially the piano is about. Shared love and appreciation.

Here it is: ‘Absolution - A Collaborative Performance For Piano Day 2021’

As my friend and much-valued piano colleague and writer

Rhonda Rizzo

kindly remarked of it:

“A beautiful and touching reminder that no matter how isolated we may feel in our own homes, we're part of a family of musicians that includes pianists from every country in the world.”

---

This time, in 2025, I’m grateful those difficult days are mostly gone, but in many ways I remain quite ambivalent and sceptical about the future for all sorts of reasons. It can be a challenge to be positive sometimes with all we see going on around us, and sometimes to us.

What I cling to, though, is the seemingly unique way in which music has such power to unite and inspire. When all else fails, I’ll always come back to music as the place where I feel most safe.

Wishing you all a very Happy Piano Day, however and where you are celebrating.

---