Manchester Jazz Festival Piano Trail 18 April to 26 May 2024 (Download your own copy of the leaflet here.) We're proud to be teaming up with Manchester Jazz Festival for a third year bringing the joy of street pianos to venues far and wide across Manchester for everyone to enjoy. This year there will be 14 pianos across the city including 'new comers' Aviva Studios (home of Factory International) and Trafford Palazzo near the Trafford Centre. Old Favourites include the Yamaha grand pianos at Harvey Nichols and the Corn Exchange as well as the iconic street pianos at Piccadilly and Victoria Stations. The pianos will be appearing over the next few days ready for the launch on Thursday at Manchester Piccadilly Station from 12.30 where performers from Chethams School of music will be starting us off with some jazz ensemble music. There are lots of prizes to be won including a Yamaha digital piano - for details on how to enter etc visit:- https://manchesterjazz.com/mjf2024-piano-trail/ Thank you to Yamaha Music with helping to sponsor the...
The Forsyths Blog
The weather has been warming up, and Spring has sprung into Forsyths! Carry on reading to see what we got up to in March --- Through Sickness and HealthA Charity Concert for Manchester Mind On the 22nd March we hosted "Through Sickness and Health," a charity concert supporting Manchester Mind. This unique event intertwined music, dance, and visual art to explore the journey from mental illness to mental health. Keep up to date with upcoming events here --- Yamaha Piano Day at Forsyths We had a wonderful day on the 23rd March, featuring all things Yamaha Piano! Yamaha's expert demonstrators and specialist piano staff were on hand throughout the day to answer questions, and we had two dedicated workshops too! --- We were delighted that the episode of SalvageHunters filmed in Forsyths last year aired on the 13th March on Quest! It was an interesting watch - it's amazing what old oddities a shop can accumulate over 166 years of history! --- The wonderful Stephen Campbell once again worked his magic in our window ---...
We got an extra day this February, and we made sure to pack it with even more music! --- We had two very different recitals in February! Award winning Luke Jones presented us with a selection of works for piano. His playing has been described as possessing “...extraordinary clarity and a seemingly infallible touch that revealed colours and atmospheres of the most sensitive of stylists…” (Christopher Axworthy – Co-Artistic Director of the Keyboard Trust) We then had an unusually piano free recital with local group Laiton Trumpet Quartet showcasing arrangements of well-known pieces for 4 trumpets, which is no small feat! Made ever more impressive by how pleasing they were to listen to. A wholeheartedly refreshing programme and superb musicianship blew away the audience at Forsyth - another excellent free recital! See our upcoming events here --- We shared some of our history with a couple of Throwback Thursday posts on our social media. Look at how our piano showroom has changed since the 1950s! We also shared the story of...
We were recently contacted by Salford Museum and Art Gallery about a grand piano in their collection. This led to a deep dive into our archives which resulted in us being able to trace its history from its creation in 1922 to now. Carry on reading for the story of this beautiful piano's history!The piano is a Blüthner grand piano and was originally made in Germany in 1922 for the Shinwell family. It was designed to fit with the panelling in the room where it stood. The Shinwell's then moved from Germany to Alderley Edge sometime before 1943, where they then sold the piano to us on 10/09/1943. This is when we would have stamped the stock code '17393' inside it. The piano was then sold on 27/06/1944 to 'Dale' in Northwich. We then bought the piano back from Dale on 04/07/1947, when we would have added the second stock code '17642'. The piano was sold once again to Dr Ghosh of Salford on 11/07/1947. Dr Ghosh unfortunately died in September 1948 and he bequeathed his collection of notable books and his piano to Salford's Library and...
January is always a cold and dark month, but we made sure to brighten it with music! Keep reading for a summary of what we got up to in January --- We had our first two concerts of the year We were delighted to kickstart our 2024 concert series by welcoming back professional concert pianist Duncan Honeybourne to share the music of a little known English composer Jessy Reason whose works he will be releasing on a new recording in early 2024. Our second concert featured 19th and 20th-century piano music from students of Kathryn Stott. We were excited to host Alex Lin, Lola Flexen, Justine Gormley, Anna Demianchuk, and Juanjo Blazquez who bought to life a selection of 19th and 20th century pieces See our upcoming concerts, as well as program details for past concerts here --- One particular guitar got its 15 minutes of fame on our Facebook page when asked what shapes people could see in the Ziricote HPL Pattern on its back. We can't really decide whether we see a Bat, an angry Owl or a Staffordshire Bull Terrier in amongst the...
See our festive opening hours below We're available online, via the phone, or in person within the hours below! Worried your gift won't make it in time for Christmas? We also offer a click and collect service until midday on Christmas Eve (orders can be collected after this time, but any new orders made may not get processed in time for collection)
November has been busy as we gear up for the festive season! Read on to see what we've been up to This month our regular concert series featured Mimi Chow & Aaron Le Maistre with Kathryn Stott performing French Piano Classics We also hosted a wonderful Charity Performance with Alan Clark from Dire Straits fundraising for Olympias Music Foundation. Alan's sold-out concert raised a whopping £1,035 for OMF - the equivalent of 52 music lessons, or music lessons for 1.75 OMF children for a whole year! Finally, we supported an awareness campaign by Prevent Breast Cancer in Manchester Piccadilly station. They made fantastic use of our street piano there, and we also provided the PA for Suzie Rubin who performed on the day. See our upcoming events here --- Across our social media platforms this month we've been highlighting some of our entry level guitars. Perfect for yourself or a loved one for Christmas! Cort G250SE These Cort G250SE are very versatile instrument, suiting many different playing styles. They also come in a range...
It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of Forsyth stalwart Audrey Wilson (1947-2023) earlier this week. Audrey joined the Sheet Music Department at Forsyths in 1964 when she was 17. She'd been planning to go on to teacher training college, but found her home/calling at Forsyths and left when she reached retirement age. Forsyths is also where she met her husband Paul - at the time an RNCM student who worked part-time in the department. Audrey was head of Sheet Music from the early 70s and her 43 years of energetic knowledgeable service to Forsyths and the musical community of Manchester and beyond is legendary. Sadly Audrey's husband Paul also died earlier this year. If you would like to know the details of the funeral (on 28.11.23) please email [email protected] or phone 0161 834 3281 ext 100.
This Halloween the wonderful Stephen Campbell has worked his magic once again in our window display. Don't worry, we've already called the Ghostbusters!