The keys to community spirit can be found between the lowest A and highest C.
As a gift to the City of Prince George for its 100th birthday, and in deference to all cultures and languages being equally served by music, some local artists are giving five pianos to be installed in public places. Anyone who wants to is invited to play them, anytime they like.
There are already two such pianos in town on which anyone off the street can sit down and play, one at Cafe Voltaire and the other at the city's cancer treatment centre. The latter was painted by local artists Maggee Spicer and Karma Vance, spearheaded by Lori Elder, one of the city's foremost piano personalities.
Another of those is Peter Stevenson, the region's top piano tuner and a performer too. He sourced the five so-called "street pianos" that will soon be dispersed around the city to enliven and animate public places with musical sounds.
"As a piano technician, I see many pianos that sit neglected and unused in people's homes for years and years. I am delighted to help put some of these pianos into public spaces so that everyone can enjoy them," says Stevenson, owner of P.S. Piano Service. "I often meet people who are trying to get rid of their pianos. I was conscious of ones at the end of their life - not so bad that they weren't playable, but at the point that being outside was okay for their last hurrah. We found five, and three of them will be outside. The other two were painted by local artists and will be inside."
The indoor ones can be found at the Prince George Civic Centre and the Prince George Airport. Local musician and artist Erin Stewart painted the former and the latter was adorned by Spicer and Vance based on their first experience turning a street piano into a visual art piece as well as a musical one.
The street piano movement has become a trend all over the world as culture turns away from piano playing as the prime family pastime in homes and parlors. Adding to that is technology, as acoustic pianos are supplanted by electronic keyboards.
Stevenson said he actually finds this to be an exciting time for music.
"That (influx of electronic keyboards) might be the case at the low end of the piano industry, but serious players are still using acoustic pianos, and the more people who start out on the electronic keyboards the more that will go on to get their own acoustic ones.
"One of the neat things about where we are with piano manufacturing now is, we've passed through the first generation of pianos mass produced and imported from China and Japan that were really cheap but not high quality," he said. "They are now mass produced at higher quality than ever before and we are seeing the rewards of that now, because the manufacturing controls are now in place, but they are still quite affordable acoustic pianos. The ones in pretty bad condition are the ones that came out of the big massive production of pianos just prior to the Second World War and those are the ones that are worn out."
Now, said Stevenson, there are hybrids being made of acoustic pianos also possessing electronic keyboards, so able to make pure piano sound but also synthesizer and programmed electronic sound.
"That's kind of a neat thing that's developing and growing. It's definitely a great time to be in the business, to see all this innovation happening now," he said.
For people with piano skills, the public keyboards will give them a chance to share their talents. For the passersby, the world is happier within earshot of music.
"Organizers of these projects have found that these pianos reinvigorate a sense of community and are effective in bringing the joy of the arts into the public sphere," said Stevenson. "Here in Prince George, we see this as an important way to bring people into the city's centennial celebration by providing an interactive opportunity for them to play, create, and celebrate."
