The Piano Shop Bath is a proud supporter of Bath Festivals, and in particular the Bath International Music Festival, where we are often at hand to provide our services from piano hire, piano removal and piano tunings. It is extremely important for Bath to have such an important festival take place in this world heritage city, not just for the people who live in Bath but also to promote Bath as a recognised location for leading musicians to come and perform their art.
Bath International Music Festival is taking place on 20-29 May 2016, and as usual the first slot is ‘Party in the City’, where thousands of performers take over the city in venues across Bath. Visitors can obtain a map and choose their own route based on what acts they want to see. Alternatively you can also just take a wander and see what takes your fancy.
Piano music is very much at the heart of most of the events taking place in the festival. Jazz, classical and blues all feature strongly in this years offerings. On Friday night, which of course is Party in the City night, we provided a very nice Yamaha G3 grand piano to the Guildhall. The Guildhall is a beautiful venue in the heart of Bath just opposite the great Bath Abbey, and provides the perfect setting for all kinds of music. The diversity of acts included big brass band music from Brass Tacks and the Prior Park B, choral music from The Royal High School Bath Senior Choir, and full on soul music from the group KES Soul.
Saturday at the Guildhall saw restaurant critic Jay Rayner display another side of creativity, as a jazz pianist. The pianist performed a program over an afternoon, mixing music alongside stories from the business of reviewing restaurants. The first half featured stories about the best and worst restaurants he has been to, as well as the worst reviews his own work he has received! In the second half he was joined by his quartet and played out the rest of the night with classic jazz tunes by Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Blossom Dearie and Dave Frishberg. An intriguing mix of food and music that delighted the audience!
On Saturday we had the pleasure of providing a piano tuning before a highly anticipated concert at St Swithin’s church. Pianist Alisdair Hogarth was joined by tenor Nicholas Mulroy to perform two of Schubert’s most famous song cycles, and afterwards jazz pianist Jason Rebello joined them to perform some iconic classical songs with a twist.
There has already been loads of great music to listen to and write and about, and we are not even half way through the festival! We look forward to seeing the rest of the artists coming to perform and we strongly recommend a trip to Bath to catch some of the music. Here at The Piano Shop Bath, we look forward to continuing our support of the Bath Music Festival and the future of this highly successful event.