You can play donated pianos in downtown Moline
Patrons of the swanky Fifth Avenue Syndicate Bistro & Bar in downtown Moline can expect an even classier experience than usual after 5 p.m. today.
That’s when Sound Conservatory piano instructor Kinza Maclin will play on a high-end $18,000 Baldwin upright piano in a corner of the bar, which has been donated from early April through early May.
It’s part of the new “Keys of Unity” program from the music store and school Sound Academy (504 17th St., Moline, where owner Andzrej Kozlowski is loaning upright pianos for selected downtown businesses free of charge for a month.
“The idea is that, for each location during that one month, they’re allowed to use that piano for whatever events they want to schedule,” he said recently. “It gives them the opportunity to bring in more live music and not have to worry about the cost of bringing a piano in.”
Each business also gets one free performance from one of the Sound Conservatory piano instructors, including Clara Nielsen who will play at Dead Poets Espresso on Friday, April 19 at 11 a.m.
The first of four pianos was delivered April 5, and the last piano this past Tuesday. On the corresponding day next month, pianos will be moved to different locations. There are 19 businesses that have signed up so far, Kozlowski said.
“The goal behind the program is to get more people excited about live music, going out to the local businesses,” he said. “Also allow these businesses to offer live music for their guests. Music is one of the biggest things that draws people into a restaurant or a space.”
Brian Terriquez, managing director of Fifth Avenue Syndicate (1630 5th Ave.), said they got the piano “because our establishment is one of class. We feel that it definitely adds to the allure of our property as a whole,” he said Monday by email. “I think it’s amazing! For as long as I’ve been in this industry, I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing something like this, as it is supremely unique.
“People have played it and some of the talent that resides in the QC amazes me,” Terriquez said. “My assistant manager, Amanda, played the theme song from Titanic on her very first day here!! Andrzej from the Sound Conservatory comes in all the time and he has showed his piano skills as well!”
Post your videos
Sound Conservatory is also having a contest, for every rotation of each piano. Anyone who plays one of the pianos, posts a video of themselves on social media, and tags what businesses they’re in, using the hashtag #KeysOfUnity, each month they’ll pick a winner for a $50 gift card for that business.
“The idea behind that is to help get people to share they’re going to these places,” Kozlowski said, noting it aims to help promote the local businesses.
Each gift card winner will be randomly chosen at the beginning of each month. The current pianos are also at Los Portales Mexican restaurant (1231 5th Ave.) and the Svithiod Club (1522 6th Ave.).
“This whole project is not just about Sound Conservatory and live music, it’s about promoting these local businesses,” Kozlowski said. The program focuses on restaurants and hotels.
“We want people to sit down and make sure it sounds good to them and the people around them,” he said of the high-quality pianos.
He connected to Moline High art teacher Elizabeth Nache and gave her students the chance to paint on one of Sound Conservatory’s Baldwin upright pianos.
Keys of Unity’s motto is “Community and music together,” so Sound Conservatory asked art students to come up with a design to reflect that motto.
Student art contest
There were 12 groups who submitted designs and over 200 people voted (on the Sound Conservatory website) and the winner will be announced Tuesday at the high school. That group will paint a piano at the school, and get $250 in gift cards to local businesses, and once it’s done, that piano will be added to the rotation.
“Having the piano there for them to analyze helped them plan their design,” Kozlowski said. “There’s lot of kids involved.”
“I feel that The Keys of Unity is a great way to bring awareness of music programs and opportunities in our community locally as well as provide a visually stimulating appearance to draw in more curiosity at each venue about the music program with the painted piano,” Nache said Monday by email.
As Art Club sponsors, she and Chelena Henning-Saberton like to provide the Moline High School’s Art Club “with opportunities to get involved within the community locally, to gain experience and learn of different ways to create visual fine art professionally,” Nache said. “As for the designs, we asked the students to come up with creative designs that would demonstrate the idea of community & music together.”
“The idea is to keep expanding with more pianos throughout the season,” Kozlowski said. “Ultimately, we want to have these pianos permanently placed, so that way they have these pianos for year-round programming.”
It is not the goal of “Keys of Unity” to sell more Sound Conservatory pianos, he said. He will maintain the tuning of the pianos.
“The best thing we can expect from this is inspiration – someone will be inspired to play,” Kozlowski said. “You just never know what kind of interest this may spark. Music is quite an inspirational thing.”
“This is just the start of it – we want piano music everywhere,” he said, noting the pianos are free for anyone to play, as long as they’re respectful of the businesses.
“Maybe they’ve never been in that business before. Maybe they’ll try or sandwich or a drink there, or bring their friends,” he said. “We want people to feel comfortable about going out and enjoying.”
Dead Poets has long had a piano (a Chickering grand) that Sound Conservatory has serviced.
“Since they had a piano, we wanted to add them into the mix of things,” Kozlowski said. “They’ve already got some awesome live acoustic music they program there, so we wanted to add to that. I don’t think there’s such thing as too much live music.”
The high school art contest will be held every year.
Sound Conservatory also is partnering with local artist Regan Hatfield, commissioning him to do live painting of an upright piano outside at Bass Street Landing (off River Drive and 17th Street) every Thursday during the Summer Concert Series, starting May 16.
Hatfield will be painting a piano in a Chopin theme (which is close to Kozlowski’s heart). “He does wonderful work and I’m really excited to see his vision of what this piano will be,” Kozlowski said.
Upcoming concerts
The Sound Conservatory hosted a jazz duo concert (John Daversa and Tal Cohen) Saturday, April 13, and its next shows will be:
The Matt Fuller Band, May 11 at 7 p.m.
Big Fun Jazz, May 25 at 7 p.m.
The Ben Schmidt Band, June 15 at 7 p.m.
Recent concerts have been packed, Kozlowski said, adding acclaimed jazz pianist Laurence Hobgood is planning to return to Sound Conservatory for a solo Christmas program this next December.
He also is starting an early childhood music education program, including having an instructor go to Boys & Girls Club in Moline once a week for six weeks to teach kids (around age 8-12) recorder and hand percussion instruments.
The Sound Conservatory hosted an instrument petting zoo last month, where 20 children got to try out a variety of instruments with teachers playing contemporary music – including trying piano, violin, flute and drums.
Every month, they will do a similar petting zoo with other instruments. “We show them, just because it’s classical instrumentation doesn’t mean it has to be classical music,” Kozlowski said. “You can play anything you want.”
For more information on Sound Conservatory, click HERE.
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