When Ian Harvey-George suggested the idea of a public piano in Kiama, the community quickly jumped on board. Photo: Supplied.
The Kiama community is hoping to bring more musicality to their streets with a new push for a public piano to be a permanent part of the town’s charm.
Ian Harvey-George hardly considers himself an expert piano player, but he constantly found himself enticed by the instrument that kept popping up in his path.
“For years I’ve been flying in and out of Adelaide Airport; I’m an airline pilot for work, and there’s this beautiful baby grand piano sitting there in the middle of Adelaide Airport,” he said.
“I remember thinking you had to be really good at piano to play it.”
One day he took the leap and trialled a few notes, which sparked a passion to continue learning the skill and finding more public pianos to practise on, right across the country.
“I started realising if I could learn three or four chords I could sit down at that piano, because most pop songs are just like four chords anyway,” he said.
“There is a beautiful public piano in Brisbane and I sat down there for 10 minutes and I realised that actually as long as you make something that sounds nice, even something simple, you don’t get told off.”
Enchanted by his experiences, Ian reached out to the Kiama community through social media to see if others were interested in the idea of a public piano or if anyone else was already working on the idea.
Hundreds of people reacted.
“The actual response from the community post was overwhelming,” the Kiama local said.
“Just one Facebook post and you’ve got people offering pianos, you’ve got people offering help.”
He said the idea was perfect for the Kiama community who were always looking at new ways to connect with each other.
“You never forget how welcomed you are when you first come to Kiama; it’s got this unique community feel.
“Kiama is that size where people aren’t just running around from school to work, they actually stop and have a coffee, a walk, a swim – people in Kiama are very present.”
Many pianos have already been offered, which would also keep them out of landfill.
But there are still costs associated with the initiative.
“A lot of pianos are free, but a lot of them are free because one or two notes won’t work,” Ian said.
“The expensive thing would be the removal – it’s about $200 – $300 to move a piano.
“Tuning is about $200 as well.”
Despite the support from the community, the challenge is finding an appropriate space for a piano.
“The main barrier is going to be hosting it; it has to be undercover,” Ian said. “You can’t just have one sitting out in the elements in the open.
“We need someone happy to host it; they don’t have to fund it – we have plenty of people that are keen to fund it – but then people who are going to be keen to help keep it clean or promote it or even if it’s bad weather, put a cover on it.
“Hopefully the council come on board too.”
If the idea turns into a reality, Ian hopes it will not only be an opportunity for beauty and connectivity, but also learning and tourism.
“I have this idea that I’d love it if on Sundays a local piano teacher may offer an hour and just sit there, and the cafe or restaurant may offer them food or drink for an hour, and if you’ve never played the piano before you can go, ‘Hey, can you just show me what this does?’
“Kiama is such a beautiful tourism town, you can imagine people coming down from Sydney for the day and there’s a piano and they would be able to play.”
The project is in its early stages with some logistics still being worked out, but for now, Ian hopes the momentum continues and the message reaches those who may be able to help it happen.
“It’s trying to get the word out there that Kiama is keen to have a public piano; it just needs people to put their hand up and say they’ve got space, a piano, funds, or even a removalist company happy to donate their time at cost or someone who could tune the piano if you could advertise their help.”
