
A Grand Finale for Pianos in the Parks
An evening filled with music and friends. That sums up the grand finale for Pianos in the Parks, hosted by Laird Norton Wealth Management this past Friday at the Olympic Sculpture Park Pavilion. Supporters of the nine different organizations that made Pianos in the Parks possible mingled, nibbled and toasted the success of the first-ever effort to bring 20 pianos to 20 Seattle-area parks and public spaces for a month (July 17 – Aug. 17, 2014).
All evening long, two monitors flashed hundreds of photos of people who had played the pianos in the parks. And for three hours virtually non-stop, music filled the Pavilion. The evening’s centerpiece was a Porsche-designed piano built by Austria’s Bosendorfer, donated for the evening by Classic Pianos of Bellevue, which also provided the 20 pianos for the parks.
Three of the Pianos in the Parks contest finalists also played and got many rounds of applause: Dave Otis (85 years old and still playing strong); teenager Matt Greisen his mother Kathy; and the charming Monty Banks, who’s working on a Seattle song to rival “New York, New York.”