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...
Piano Department
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 Carry on reading for the story of this beautiful piano's history!The piano is a Blüthner grand piano and was originally made in Germany in 1922 for the Shinwell family.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...
This October has been a busy one here at Forsyth! We've continued to host free concerts as part of our ongoing concert series in our historic piano showroom. Here we are all set up ready for the Benjamin Frith & Heidi Rolfe perform works for two pianos, four hands concert that took place on the 19th October. All those seats were filled by the time the performance started! See more our other upcoming concerts here --- We gave nearly 100 free music lessons on the 7th and 8th of October with Music for All's Learn to Play event. We've been a part of Learn to Play for several years now, and it's always a success. It's fantastic to see so many new and returning musicians getting stuck in and trying out so many different instruments! Don't worry if you missed out, we offer free trial lessons with all of our teachers year round. See here to book yours --- We also had pleasure of renting a couple of pianos to Madonna while she was in Manchester rehearsing for her world tour. She booked out the entire Stock Exchange Hotel...
We are delighted to be able to provide fantastic spaces for live performances and events here at Forsyths. Since reopening after the last lockdown in 2021 we have been hosting recitals in our newly refurbished historic piano showroom - at least twice per month - over 50 and counting! We have had a wide range of amazing performers from well established artists such as Benjamin Frith and Murray McLachlan on the classical side to Jazz legends such as James Pearson and his trio from Ronnie Scott's. We also welcome a wide range of talented up and coming performers from the RNCM etc. We are also a regular venue for Manchester Jazz Festival. We have been overwhelmed by the support for our recital series and the keenness of musicians to come and perform - often on multiple occasions! We are proud to be able to offer most of the performances free of charge as we have secured charitable trust funding from the Ida Carroll Trust to enable us to pay all performers. In addition to the performances in our showroom, we also have a 'flexible...
Today is the start of the iconic Manchester Jazz Festival - 10 days of amazing music spread across the city including 2 brilliant gigs here at Forsyths in our historic piano showroom. To find out more and book your tickets visit the MJF website here:- Nishla Smith Quintet - Thursday 25th May 2023 Beautiful mesmerizing vocals with music that draws you in to their world of very accessible homegrown jazz. https://manchesterjazz.com/events/nishla-smith-the-beast/ You can find out more About Nishla and her Quintet on her website here https://www.nishlasmith.com/ James Pearson (Ronnie Scott's) Trio - The History of Jazz Piano We are delighted to be welcoming back James Pearson and his trio for another mesmerizing gig and journey through the world of jazz piano. Tickets are selling fast - so don't miss out! https://manchesterjazz.com/events/the-james-pearson-trio/ Manchester Jazz Festival Piano Trail 2023 After last years success of the inaugral MJF pianotrail - we've been happy to provide another 13 pianos spread across...
We have an opportunity for an experienced piano technician to join our team of tuners and technicians here at Forsyths. To find out more visit here.
After hours of whittling down the 100+ entries to this years #mjfpianotrail we are pleased to be able to announce the winners!The overall winner is 9 year old Leo with his own composition being performed on the piano that was in Manchester Art Gallery. You can see his entry here:-https://twitter.com/jan_001/status/1530947029928660993 FIRST PRIZE – Yamaha Digital Piano P-45B: Leo Cheung Northern Rail tickets: Daniel Green Lavados Quayside MediaCityUK prize package: Alfie Saddington Doner Haus meal: Alex Goulding Lion’s Den bar tab: Aitor Garcia Manchester Art Gallery Afternoon Tea: Ali Dale Jenny Jones jewellery: Emma 20 Stories Afternoon tea: Richard Lawson The Lawn Club: Tom Statham £30 Wagamama voucher: Mahdi Zakia AND Jacob Beverley Special thank you to the Spinningfields branch of Wagamama for offering a £30 Wagamama gift voucher to each winner.About the mjf 2022 piano trail13 street pianos were dotted around the city for passers-by to play in the build up to this year’s jazz festival. Over 2000 pianists, young and old bought the city...
We\'re proud to be the official piano partner for Manchester Jazz Festival 2022. As part of this partnership we have provided 13 pianos to be the #mjfpianotrail that have now been installed in venues across the city centre.[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"752\" caption=\"Preparing pianos at Forsyths for the MJFpianotrail\"][/caption]We’re bringing music to the streets of Manchester this May with the mjf piano trail #mjfpianotrail, from May 6 – 29. There are 13 pianos scattered across Manchester for pianists to discover and enjoy. Many of the host venues have also asked to keep their piano after the Festival has finished which is great news for the \'street pianists\' of Manchester! The map below reveals where you will find them.And for those who think they can give Elton John a run for his money, a competition to find Manchester’s best street pianists will also run, with a whole raft of prizes up for grabs including a Yamaha P-45B piano, return ticket for 4 anywhere on the Northern Rail Network, a gift package and vouchers...
We are pleased ot be able to offer pianists opportunities to take part in FREE workshops to help improve their technique and meet like minded pianists. We have two sesssions coming up at Forsyths which are excellent opportunities for pianists at all stages of their learning. This is part of a rolling programme of events for our customers - please do keep an eye on our website for further information aboug other future events.[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"860\" caption=\"Manchester Piano Hub workshop in 2021\"][/caption]6th March: Manchester Piano Forum - A Way into \'Mental Practice\' with pianist Hery CashHenry is a superb up and coming young pianist who will be helping participants to think about practicing away from the piano and techniques for improving memorising music. You can find out more on our website here:- https://www.forsyths.co.uk/content/334-a-way-into-mental-practice-with-henry-cash24th April: Piano Workshop with Susan BettaneySusan is a wonderfully supportive and encouraging educator with decades of...