World Class Arts Venue Giving Free Venue To Support NZ Arts At This Time
by The Piano - Centre for Music and the Arts
The Piano has been inundated with enquiries after offering free use of their venues to support performers.
Covid-19 has had a huge impact on creative industries and presented a challenging time for artists. In response, The Piano is offering free use of their performance spaces for June and July, with the aim of providing a place where audiences and performers can connect without the barrier of venue hire costs.
Bronwyn Bijl, Director, is grateful to the Trust Board for their governance during this time.
“The Piano recognises that participation in music and the arts has a deeply positive impact on the physical, mental and social wellbeing of people and communities. While we’ve been hit very hard financially with five months of event cancellations, the trustees are aware that performers are in the same position. We know that the cost of venue hire will prohibit many from performing in the coming months, especially while audience numbers are restricted. The trustees have unanimously agreed to provide our performance venues free of charge, along with staffing to manage enquiries and bookings. The only cost performers are asked to pay is staffing on the day of the event and any additional equipment not available at The Piano.”
Over 60 artists have already shown interest and a number of bookings have been made.
“As a freelance musician who has been affected by cancelled concerts, this generous offer from The Piano has been a welcome invitation to start performing again. It's more than just for those who will be performing on stage, it has opened the doors to our community to come and enjoy music – and feel good about being together.” – Cathy Irons, Classical Jazz Quartet
“This is a strange time where most theatre companies have cancelled a large portion of their seasons. If performers want to be on a stage in 2020, we will most likely have to create the work ourselves. With free venue hire, The Piano provides us with a platform to showcase our work that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford. It’s an incredible opportunity, and I’m thrilled to be able to make use of it.” – Jeremy Hinman, Blackboard Theatre Collective
In addition, The Piano is thrilled to announce that 14 acoustic roller banners manufactured by J & C Joel UK, have now been installed in the Philip Carter Family Concert Hall. The fabric banners, able to operated individually from an ipad, will enable the performance venue into a multi-purpose space, making it more suitable for speech and amplified music. The fabric banners will also improve the acoustic environment for large choral and orchestral groups. The Piano is very grateful to Lotteries Community Facility, Rata Foundation, Southern Trust, Pub Charity and Lion Foundation for their support with this project, costing $410,000.
The Piano, charitable trust, is creating connections, enabling expression and bringing joy inspiration and entertainment to people’s lives as we move through the various levels of Covid 19 lockdown.
For further information please contact bronwyn@thepiano.nz
To keep up to date with events and support the artists performing at The Piano go to our website calendar for details: www.thepiano.nz/events and/or our Facebook page.