Barcelona Passeig de Gràcia boulevard fills up with pianos for one day

The Passeig de Gràcia boulevard in the center of Barcelona is always beautiful, but on Friday, it had a magnificent look and feel. A large piano was at almost every corner, changing the atmosphere and especially the daily noise. 

The reason is the project "Your City Full of Pianos" which placed ten pianos in Barcelona's city center. Nine were on Passeig de Gràcia, and the last one was in the gardens at the top of the same boulevard, Jardinets de Gràcia. So, Passeig de Gràcia became an open-air stage for a day. 

The pianos are not alone in the middle of the street; at every place there is a person in charge of moving forward the event, inviting people to play, and organizing the queue when there are too many pianists. Pamela Llanero, from Italy but a Barcelona resident for the last 20 years, is one of them.

She started to collaborate with Maria Canals International Competition, the organization that has organized that event since its first edition, twelve years ago. She thinks that having pianos on the street should be done more than once per year, as its main goal is to help people to keep playing piano.

"I really enjoy bringing music to people who may have given up on music. We are not here to judge the level of the pianist but to give them the strength to continue with music because music has no limits", Pamela said to Catalan News.

Pianos are available to professional musicians, music students, piano enthusiasts, children or anyone who wants to enjoy the experience. Among those who have played was Juan David Ceñiga, a piano professor who came from Valencia for the occasion. He was planning to play every piano. 

"I found the event online, and being from Valencia it was worth coming. Since there are pianos on the street, why not come and play them? I was told there are ten pianos around the area, so I've been trying to play a distinct piece on each one.", he told Catalan News.

But while David Ceñiga was planning to come and play, Roger Escorça was completely surprised when he got off the metro.

He, a pianist, quickly joined to play one of the ten different pianos.

He began to play during the pandemic because his father had brought a piano home, but he soon began to take lessons. In the Passeig de Gràcia he played some compositions by Chopin, but also his own creations. 

Escorça enjoyed playing for spontaneous audiences and after the first piano, he followed with almost three more. 

"I composed the second song. It is faster than the first I played. It's written in C major, which means you play all the white keys, then it's easier to be more agile. It is wonderful to be playing with people is always cool. Also, you meet people with whom you can improvise and do cool things, and that's even cooler", he said.

Besides the pianist, the other important part of this performance is the audience. Most of them didn't know about it before they left home. People pass by the pianos, but they can't help stopping to take a photo or video to share. 

This is the case of a Brazilian tourist, Alexander Fromino, who was listening to a man playing a Bösendorfer grand piano in Jardinets de Gràcia. It was a great surprise for him, and as the pianist mentioned, he would follow pianos, but only to listen.

Others had "Your city full of pianos" event on their calendars, like Núria and Conchita, two friends who came together to listen to pianists. In Núria's opinion, cultural events like this should be organized more often in Barcelona the streets. 

"It was wonderful," said Conchita. They listened to the pianist in each piano and after that time they went to see "L'Ou com balla" a yearly tradition that can be seen in the cathedral of Barcelona, among other places. 

The Fundació Occident is also part of this edition of "Your city full of pianos", thanks to this collaboration the idea will also be present in 19 other cities such as Madrid, Bilbao, Seville, Valencia, Palma de Mallorca or Granada.