In a deserted former department store near the port of Leith in Edinburgh, Tim Vincent-Smith reaches inside a grand piano's open top, his fingertips lightly plucking at the taut strings. | News24Arts
The piano is one of hundreds rescued by the musician and his team of volunteers, as homes around Britain discard the instruments in favour of more space.
As the instruments flooded in, Vincent-Smith realised that many were still"pretty good", and so he and his bandmate Matthew Wright decided to found"If you are lucky, you may find a beautiful antique piano which has a good action and tone, holds its tuning and is a pleasure to play," he said.Britain has a piano-making tradition dating back more than 200 years, boasting some 360 manufacturers at its peak in the beginning of the last century.
But as homes shrank in size and stairways grew narrower, it became increasingly difficult to shift pianos in narrower spaces. Vincent-Smith first came across dumped pianos when he started building furniture 20 years ago. At the time he was living and working at the Shakespeare and Co. bookshop on the banks of the River Seine in Paris.
Artist and musician Tim Vincent-Smith, Co director of Painodrome, a charity centre aiming a the refurbishing and repairing pianos, poses in their atelier in a former department store near the port of Leith, in Edinburgh, Scotland.Artist and musician Tim Vincent-Smith, Co director of Painodrome, a charity centre aiming a the refurbishing and repairing pianos, tests a piano in their atelier in a former department store near the port of Leith, in Edinburgh, Scotland.
There are also open sessions where enthusiasts can try out the pianos. When they find one they like, they can"adopt" it and take it home in return for an optional small donation.