Do you know any high school pianists? It looks like they are hoping for more entrants to the Young Musicians Piano Solo Competition at HCC:
Attention High School Pianists! Deadline Extended! You now have until February 18 to submit your video entry! Showcase your talent and compete for cash prizes in the Young Musicians Piano Solo Competition at HCC! Prizes: 1st Place: $1,000 HCC scholarship plus $350 cash, 2nd Place: $250 cash, 3rd Place: $150 cash.
For more information and an application, visit the Piano Competition page on the HCC website. There will be a Showcase Concert on Friday, March 21, 2025 at 7:00 p.m where winners will be announced and those in attendance will get a vote in choosing the Audience Favorite.
True confession: the real reason that this piano competition made it into the blog today has to do with the fact that three piano stories presented themselves to me within 24 hours. I took this as a sign.
The Washington Post featured the story of a young man named Josiah Jackson who rescued a dilapidated piano a Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.
"It was in very rough shape: Dust was everywhere, and there was a gluey substance under the keys that prevented them from working," he said. "I'd never seen anything like it."
Jackson used a vacuum attachment to suck up the piles of dust, then he pried out the 88 keys and cleaned them one by one with a damp cloth. He scraped up the gummy muck that was stuck inside and used a rag to wipe the interior of the piano.
"I figured out the reason the piano was such a sticky mess was because it was next to a bar, and people had spilled their drinks on the keys," he said. "It was definitely the biggest challenge I've ever had."
An airport piano was filthy and out of tune. He fixed it during a layover., Cathy Free, Washington Post
There’s nothing local about this story. It just made me feel good. And since I was able to locate it through my handy dandy Howard County Library access, I thought I’d share it with you.
Johnson even has his own YouTube channel called the Piano Doctor. His piano tuning business is located in West Michigan, but his videos give him an international reach. I found a video about the Chicago Airport piano which is nearing two million views.
Cleaning a Gross Public Piano in the Chicago Airport, Josiah Jackson, The Piano Doctor
Another piano story closer to home comes from UMBC.
The hills are alive with the sound of piano music, Jennie O’Grady, UMBC Magazine
Students play on a piano tucked away in the woods across from Fine Arts as part of the installation, "Piano Garden." (Marlayna Demond '11/UMBC)
It’s an unexpected performance opportunity plus it’s an art piece of sorts, presented by Livewire: Resounding at UMBC last fall.
“Piano Garden” is the latest “performance” of New Zealand-born composer Annea Lockwood’s ever-growing outdoor series of “Piano Transplants” compositions in which, since 1969, defunct pianos are burned, submerged in water, or—as is the case at UMBC— left to be taken over by trees and plant life.
It is interesting to note that artist Annea Lockwood’s description of the Piano Transplants project stipulates:
PLEASE NOTE: All pianos used should already be beyond repair.
I don’t know if the piano in the woods at UMBC was beyond repair but it certainly wasn’t beyond playing.
“I always look for a practice room with a window, but sometimes I can’t get one,” [student Luke Heichlinger] says, explaining that he and his friend, Hannah, originally joked that the piano in the woods might be a hallucination. Thankfully, it wasn’t—so they came back the next day prepared with sheet music.
There you have it. Three sorts of pianos. One for competition, one transformed from years of use and abuse, and one left in the woods to decompose. An odd juxtaposition but, after all, it’s Monday.
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