Page 848 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

bringing the contest closer to the community in which it is based

as well as reaching out to a global audience.

But talking to The Yorkshire Post via video, artistic director Adam
Gatehouse sounds like a man whose mission to modernise the 61-year-old

Competition has only just begun.

In late August organisers launched the ‘Pianodrome’, an intimate, 100-

seater mini venue made with wood from 40 old pianos and based within

Leeds City Museum, which has hosted performances by the likes of Lucy
Illingworth and Brad Kellaher, winners of the Channel 4 TV series The

Piano. “It is fantastic,” Gatehouse enthuses.

Across Leeds city centre, a Piano Trail features 12 playable pianos. “And to

accompany that,” Gatehouse says, “there’s some sculptures made by the

people who made the Pianodrome from recycled pianos, it’s very eye-
catching.”

A Piano Cube, formed from four pianos, also sits outside the city’s Radisson
Blu hotel, and nearby there are elephant tusks also made from old

instruments.