Six upcyled pianos were unveiled at Abravanel Plaza in Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon. The unveiling of the artwork was accompanied by a public piano concert to kick of a series of public concerts throughout the summer.
The Key Changes project is backed by a collaboration between Salt Lake County Arts and Culture, the Gina Bachauer Piano Foundation and The Blocks Arts District.
For the duration of summer, there will be a free public concert held at Abravanel Plaza on every last Friday of the month at noon. The six piano art pieces will also remain displayed on the public plaza, where passersby can play them.
“These pianos will live on this plaza through September,” Kary Billings, executive director of the Gina Bachauer Piano Foundation, said at a press conference on Friday. “Obviously they will be prone to the weather and whatever else could happen so we’ll monitor them and hope for the best.”
The first concert performance was from Misha Galant, a 2024 quarterfinalist in the Bachauer competition. Galant played two sonatas as audiences listened and enjoyed the new art installation.
“We knew (this project) was the perfect way to bring something really unique to this public space downtown,” said Matt Castillo, director of Salt Lake County Arts and Culture “It’s also such a great way to emphasize just how special Salt Lake County’s Blocks Arts District is, where you come downtown at any time and find amazing art.”
Britney Helmers, the program director at The Blocks Arts District, called in an ideal opportunity to “showcase performing arts as well as visual arts in downtown Salt Lake City.”
6 artists unveil upcycled pianos
Six local artists — Ryan Harrington, Chuck Landvatter, Evan Jed Memmott, Richard Taylor, Kalani Tonga Tufuaku and Ben Wiemeyer — unveiled their own upcyled piano pieces at the Abravanel Plaza on Friday afternoon.
They were introduced by Tufuaku, who said she felt “exceptionally lucky to be showing my work alongside six such extremely talented human beings.”
“Music is a family affair in the Polynesian culture,” Tufuaku told the audience before her piece was unveiled by three of her children.
“I left the piano playable — and I even tuned it — because I want the public to interact with it and feel invested and connected to the piece in a personal way,” Tufuaku continued. “My hope is that whatever intention each artist infused into their piece as they labored on it that it is received and embraced by those who view it.”
Memmott found the history of his piano typed up and taped within its frame. The piano’s history inspired his project.
Memmott’s piano was donated by a woman suffering from macular degeneration. She’s completely lost her sight and has “to rid her home of things that she can bump into and hurt herself (on),” Memmott explained to the Deseret News.
The piano’s former owner had once painted the instrument orange to brighten her home. Memmott used orange paint so the piano’s “orange history could be preserved.”
He also wanted to highlight the piano’s unique tiger oak wood grain, which is bookended — creating a symmetrical pattern on either side. The piano is “exactly 50% covered, 50% uncovered so all the wood grain can be appreciated,” Memmott said. Taylor deconstructed his piano, exposing the instrument’s intricate insides. His project was inspired by “the mechanical complexity of the piano.”
“There’s just so much that goes on in the inside (the piano),” Taylor said. “So I wanted to just expose all that. Highlight it. And show some of the beauty of the mechanical parts.”
