12 pianos for just 12 days to play at the San Francisco Botanical Garden

PHOTO BY KATHRYN RUMMEL

WHAT:                      
Flower Piano – twelve pianos installed for twelve days in San Francisco Botanical Garden are available for public play with some scheduled performances by professional musicians

WHEN:                      
July 9 - 20, 2015

TIME:                        
7:30 AM to 6 PM

WHERE:                   
San Francisco Botanical Garden, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

COST:                        
FREE with regular admission as follows:

San Francisco Residents: FREE with proof of residency
Non-residents: $7 general, $5 youth 12-17 & seniors; $2 children 5-11; children 4 and under FREE; families of 2 adults and one or more child pay just $15

The Garden is free daily 7:30-9am and all day on second Tuesdays of the month

INFORMATION:    
www.SFBotanicalGarden.org, (415) 661-1316

Photo By Kathryn Rummel

This July for twelve days only, San Francisco Botanical Garden (SFBG) becomes the city’s own outdoor concert hall and everyone is invited to play and listen. From July 9 – 20, visitors are encouraged to seek out one of the twelve pianos tucked among the many flower-filled gardens within SFBG’s 55 acres and play what they like, from Bach to boogie-woogie.  On select days, professional pianists, including acclaimed Steinway Concert and Recording Artist Lara Downes, will be scheduled to perform as well, and the public is welcome to watch the performances.

Flower Piano is the latest project of piano ninjas Mauro ffortissimo and Dean Mermell who together launched Sunset Piano in 2013 when ffortissimo covertly rolled an old grand piano onto the bluffs over Half Moon Bay. Since then, Sunset Piano has expanded this impromptu musical and social experiment, temporarily placing pianos in a wide variety of unexpected natural and urban settings around the Bay Area every year, from the top of Montara Mountain to Market Street.