Piano 'adoption drive' launched in Edinburgh to rescue unwanted instruments heading for rubbish dumps

They have spent years recycling them to turn into intimate amphitheatres and sculptures.

Tim Vincent-Smith and Matthew Wright are running Pianodrome's 'Adopt a Piano' appeal.

Now the musicians behind Edinburgh’s pop-up Pianodrome venues have announced plans to encourage residents and businesses across the city to help save dozens of instruments due to be sent to rubbish dumps.

Matthew Wright and Tim Vincent-Smith have been staging concerts and other events in venues made entirely out of “upcycled” pianos since 2017.

Now they have created a showroom in an empty Debenhams department store – alongside their latest Pianodrome – to help promote their new “Adopt a Piano” venture.

Matthew Wright and Tim Vincent-Smith are running Pianodrome's 'Adopt a Piano' appeal.

It aims to find new homes for instruments donated to their company which are still able to be played – in return for a minimum donation of £50.

It is hoped the “adoption drive” will see around 50 pianos get a new life in hotels, restaurants or bars, as well as private homes.

Vincent Smith, an artist and musician, previously created shelves and benches for a bookshop in Paris from materials rescued from skips – then made a clifftop bookshop on Santorini Island in Greece partly out of driftwood.

He said: “The first piano that I ever worked with I actually bought for £10 from a junkyard.

Matthew Wright and Tim Vincent-Smith have launched Pianodrome's 'Adopt a Piano' appeal.

"But one of the things that led to the idea for the Pianodrome was that I discovered there was actually an endless supply of pianos available.

"I had hired a piano mover for one which had been donated to my family. I happened to ask if he ever had any spare as I had been thinking of making some stuff out of old pianos. He said there were three in his van that I could have for free. He kept dropping more and more off.”

The initial Pianodrome, described as the first amphitheatre in the world made out of upcycled pianos, attracted 18,000 visitors at the Royal Botanic Garden. Its latest incarnation, for the old Royal High School on Calton Hill over the summer, has been relocated to the former Debenhams store in Ocean Terminal in Leith.

Wright said: “People have been giving us pianos since the earliest days of the Pianodrome.

Tim Vincent-Smith and Matthew Wright have launched Pianodrome's 'Adopt a Piano' appeal.

“There have been a couple of times when we’ve had way too many. We are not looking for any more.

“We sort through them all and work out which ones will be taken apart because they’re no longer tunable.

"We care for and look after the others, and work with our piano tuners to make them decent enough to be playable.”

Vincent-Smith said the main aim of the new initiative was to “rescue the pianos from going to the dump.”

He added: “We get emails every week from people who want to get rid of their pianos. Ideally we would want people to get them tuned before they throw them out and keep them circulating in the community.

"If they don’t want to keep it, the best thing would be to find a new home for it.”

Wright added: “Putting a piano which can be played beautifully into the home might give people the urge to give it a try or get their kids to play. They’re also beautiful objects – having them in your home really adds to the space. There is no substitute for that.”