Firstly, I need to apologise to Cork Airport. They have a piano, as in Dublin, it is in Arrivals on the ground floor of the terminal and you need to retrieve a key to use it. If I have time on Monday I will do so. The piano is supplied by Moloney Pianos and my point about there needing to be one airside still stands.
Before Christmas, I passed through both Brussels and Amsterdam and played pianos in both airports. As Brussels is my local departure airport, I know the set up there slightly better and they have two pianos, one in each terminal, A and B (Schengen and non-Schengen). I always try to find time to sit there for a while and play and I duly did. I’m in the process of setting up a YouTube channel for this site so will add some bits and pieces from public pianos over the years when it is up and running.
The one that surprised me was Amsterdam. I hadn’t known there was a piano there and I found it by accident in what I think is the non-Schengen side of the airport on Christmas Eve. There was a young American with a leaning towards jazz and blues playing there. I was impressed and listened for quite a while. His flight had been cancelled. Two teenaged boys came up and asked if they could have a go. The first of them played Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, the second movement, and then he played a medley out of what I think was the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Hans Zimmer. The second played a couple of bits by Yann Tiersen, at least one of which was from the Amelie movie. I played some stuff from Ireland.
The piano is in the library in Amsterdam Airport. Already, I love that they have a library area, I love that there is plenty of place to sit and relax or work, plenty of sockets. It’s a K.Kawai, and from what I can see from the internet it has been there for more than 10 years. It’s in tune, and in reasonably good condition. So AMS takes care of it and that’s to the benefit of passengers passing through.
What I loved about that interlude on Christmas Eve was how supportive a) all of the musicians were of each other despite playing very different music and b) how supportive the audience were. In fact, I’m always surprised by the feedback I tend to get playing public pianos – I’m not Lang Lang – but I have had people come up to me on trains in Ireland who heard me playing on the pianos in Heuston, and each of the four of us playing in the Library in Amsterdam Airport on Christmas Eve got rounds of applause. It makes you feel good.
I didn’t learn the name of the young American pianist but he was utterly charming. He showed a four year old how to play scales and then improvised with her so that they made something very special. We need more people around doing stuff like that, I’ve done it in Heuston once or twice when children show an interest. It’s one of the reasons I think public pianos are important.
The two teenagers were French I think. At least one of them spoken English with a heavy French accent. The other said very little.
I’ve played public pianos in Belgium, Ireland, France and now the Netherlands. I’ve not seen any of the public pianos in Germany and I couldn’t get near the train pianos in St Pancras the last time I was in London. I think this is kind of a good thing.