STREETPIANO
Welcome to my streetpiano page
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I play a little Steingraeber piano with a lovely bright sound. It is small but very heavy and it's solid iron frame is the reason it can hold its tuning on tour which I am very grateful for. How do I get it to places? Sweat and tears. You take the van with the piano in it as close to the performance space as you can. Then the task is to find some passers by with muscles and kindness, and they help you unload the unwieldy thing. Once this has been accomplished I need to take the van away and park it somewhere safely, and then return to my piano to play as much as possible before any rainfall stops me.
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My repertoire is a funky mix of stride pano, boogie woogie, ragtime, old jazz tunes and some classical music. I love finding original versions of tunes by Fats Waller, George Gershwin, Scott Joplin and other geniuses. I'll practice them for years and then bring them out to unsuspecting ears of random listeners.
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Thanks so much for swinging by and hope to see you in the Meadows soon.
Playing the Edinburgh Meadows during the festival
Streetpiano on TV
My little piano came out of winter hibernation this year for a very special streetpiano session. Channel 4 asked me to play piano on the Royal Mile so they could film this for their show 'The Piano'. I was honoured and it was an amazing day. The weather was cold but kind enough. The man on the right of this picture asked me to play boogie woogie, the whole vibe was lovely.
Streetpiano Tour of Europe 2023
Innsbruck
Augsburg
Düsseldorf
Burghausen
Rosenheim
Bolzano
Kufstein
Strasbourg
The Big Beach Busk in Portobello
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A favourite busking event in my calendar is the Big Beach Busk. It happens on the Promenade in Portobello and sees hundreds of musicians and other artists gather to celebrate the opportunity to perform by the sea and entertain randomly. Kids in the area have saved up small change to hand out to buskers. People eat ice cream and stroll by, listening and sometimes dancing. It is such a fun event.
Playing the Big Beach Busk in Portobello
What else?
I love playing ragtime and stride, preferrably performed to random crowds in a pedestrian zone with my acoustic streetpiano. Strangest thing that ever happened to me? I would say up there with the top moments is meeting the mayor of Brussels. However, he didn't invite me in for a cup of tea. He told me to take my piano away from the town square as nobody is allowed to set up there. I guess we shouldn't have ignored the traffic cones when driving in. He was very friendly : )
A little VruVru cartoon I created for the Streetpiano Tour of Europe 2023
Playing the Meadows - an article by Vicky Allan
Always love to play the Meadows
See the loading and unloading action of this small but heavy streetpiano:
From the press
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Vroni Holzmann - travelling Europe with a piano
(Piano InForum, 3 March 2013)
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“ Vroni Holzmann has been travelling through Europe with her Steingraeber piano since 2000. The cities she has visited already are painted onto the piano. In 2012 she travelled through Scandinavia, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Latvia. She thinks of Germany and Great Britain as wonderful countries to play her piano in. The piano gets transported with a van. To unload the piano she tends to need a little help, but this has never been a problem so far. She could always find passersby who could give a hand.
The streetpianist delights the crowd with her piano, performing ragtime, jazz or boogie-woogie. Born in Rosenheim, she now resides in Edinburgh. In Great Britain there is no need to get a licence to perform on the street, but this is different in Spain and Italy. In Verona she even had to abort her street concert. The listeners found themselves arguing with the police that she should be allowed to continue performing. However difficult it is, she just wants to bring her piano to where people can see and hear it. Rather than in concert halls she wants to play in the street so people can find it easier to forget their everyday life.
In the meantime she has published her first album: 'Wandelung'. Now you can listen to Vroni Holzmann at home. "
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