Once in a while old pianos sit and moan feeling sad 'cause their upkeep fell short. This Old Piano rescued 2 old pianos, deconstructed them and designed them into two new instruments.

The project team included pianist Tiffany Lin, wood worker Joel Kikuchi, instrument designers Colin Ernst and Hugo Solis, composers Jherek Bischoff and Tom Baker. Each instrument was built from the constituent parts of a single piano, which meant the design team couldn't use anything that didn't come from the original piano other than some glue and some screws. Other rules applied;  each piano had to be free (or freely given to us), the piano had to be in disrepair, and the final instrument had to be small enough to transport without having to hire piano movers!

Then composers paired up with an instrument designer to figure out how to write music and make cool sounds from instruments that never existed before. After, Tiffany learned how to play each instrument to perform the pieces composed by Tom and Jherek. 

Links to audio, scores, and building slideshows for each instrument are on the left side of this site. 

This Old Piano happened with support from the Jack Straw Foundation, the City of Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, 4Culture Seattle, and the Allied Arts Foundation, This Old Piano started construction in February 2010. There were two public performance and two exhibits staged at the Jack Straw Studios and New Media Gallery (April 19 – May 12, 2010) and at the South Seattle Community College Art Gallery (June 25 -July 19, 2010).

*This photo was taken by Andrew Waits. These are closeups of the two pianos used in this project.