13 street pianos have been dotted around popular Manchester locations, and they’re free for the public to play all month.
The annual Manchester Jazz Festival (mjf) is arriving in our city on Friday 20 – Sunday 29 May, and to properly celebrate the 2022 edition in style, festival organisers have teamed up with the beloved Forsyth Music Shop to place over a dozen pianos at well-known sites in the hunt for Manchester’s most entertaining street pianist.
You don’t even need any technical talent or formal training either, as the competition is open to everyone from concert pianists, to the occasional ivory tickler.
If you haven’t spotted any of the pianos yet, then make sure to keep your eyes peeled across the city centre as they’re located at Manchester Arndale, The Corn Exchange, Forsyth Music Shop, Great Northern, Harvey Nichols, Royal Exchange Arcade, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester Central Library, Manchester Piccadilly Station, and Manchester Victoria Station.
A little further afield, pianos have also been placed at Spinningfields, Quayside in MediaCityUK, and even at the Trafford Centre.
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Manchester Arndale and the Corn Exchange are just two of the locations where pianos have been installed / Credit: The Manc Group
All 13 of the pianos are now available for passers-by to play, but for those who think they can give Elton John or Billy Joel a good run for their money, then there’s a whole raft of prizes up for grabs too.
Some of the prizes you can get your hands on in the limited-time-only competition include a Yamaha P-45B piano, a return ticket for two anywhere on the Northern Rail Network, a gift package and vouchers worth over £100 from MediaCityUK, an afternoon tea for two at 20 Stories, £30 Wagamama vouchers for each prize winner, and so much more.
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Speaking on the mjf Piano Trial, Emma Loat – Manager of Forsyth’s Music – said: “For many years, we’ve had a street piano at the front of the Forsyth’s shop on Deansgate, so we know that Manchester and the surrounding areas is full of talented musicians and those willing to have a go [and] we’re really excited to supply 13 pianos for the mjf piano trail.
“We’d urge all those budding performers to come forward, have a go, and be in with a chance of winning some fantastic prizes.”
We're bringing music to the streets of Manchester this May with the #mjfpianotrail, delivered with our friends at @ForsythMusic 🎹
13 pianos will be dotted around the city centre from 6 – 29 May, and we're on the lookout for MCR's best street pianists!
— manchester jazz festival (@ManJazzFest) May 4, 2022
To be in with a chance to be named one of Manchester’s best street pianists, all you’ll need to do is find one of the pianos in the trail, take a short video of your performance, and post the video to your Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter account tagging in @manchesterjazzfestival / @manjazzfest and using the hashtag #mjfpianotrail.
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At the end of the piano trail, mjf and Forsyth’s will pick nine lucky winners based on who showed the most “creativity, ingenuity, and gave the best performances”.
Review | ‘This is a night to remember, Manchester’ – Jason Derulo’s Co-op Live debut
Amy Williams
Who’s ready for another throwback night? Because this was absolutely a night already full of nostalgia and one to remember.
American singer-songwriter Jason Derulo hit Co-op Live last night as part of his ‘The Last Dance World Tour’, famous for hit songs like ‘Whatcha Say’, ‘Talk Dirty’, and ‘Savage Love’ – we all remember the Covid TikTok dance, don’t we? – as well as many more.
With over 250 million singles sold and tens of billions of streams, you best believe his one night in Manchester was sold out.
Running through the big hits and everything in between, he and his dancers made it a proper party atmosphere on this fine Saturday evening.
He did his throwback songs and more; from the moment he said, “We’re throwing it back to the beginning, back to 2009″, we knew his first debut single, ‘Whatcha Say’, was about to grace our ears, and that it did.
He also brought back absolute classics like ‘Ridin’ Solo’ (I definitely lost my voice during this one) In My Head and It Girl.
The Last Dance run of shows has seen him visit places like Leeds, London, Glasgow and Birmingham, finishing his UK leg right here in Manchester, before he carries on to Europe, but we’re confident our date had the best crowd so far.
And just when you think this couldn’t get any better, he brought his little boy on stage to say hi to everyone, too – shattered everyone’s hearts.
He has that many hit songs, it wasn’t possible to get through them all, so his DJ halfway through did a mash-up of songs he’s also written and featured in, including ‘I Gotta Feeling’ by Black Eyed Peas, ‘Secret Love Song’ with Little Mix and ‘Replay’ by Iyaz.
We knew his voice was amazing – but can we have a moment for this man’s dance moves, keeping everyone on their feet at Co-op Live tonight, and his dancers made everyone want to start dance lessons tonight too, an absolutely incredible performance by all.
Jason Derulo told the audience, “This is a night to remember Manchester’, and that it absolutely was.
The story behind Sâlo: the rising Georgian-born Salford artist set be one of the region’s next stars
Danny Jones
We always love stories of people moving to Manchester to be more creatively engaged, but tales of entire families relocating here for a better life and art being born out of it is something truly special – and besides her obvious talent, that’s what has attracted us and plenty others to Sâlo.
This up-and-coming Salfordian artist may have been born around the border between Eastern Europe and Western Asia during a particular fraught time for her country, but she’s been raised and moulded like so many of us by this city’s rich music culture and wider artistic heritage.
She came to the UK with her family as a baby, with her parents fleeing poverty and lingering friction in Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 90s, and their journey as asylum seekers eventually brought them here to the North West.
It was clear from a young age that Sâlo (short for Salome) had a gift for the piano, but it was when her family moved to the Greater Manchester area that her own interest in genres and styles began to develop. Here’s a little snippet of her recent performance at the stunning Stoller Hall.
This short video was taken from her feature in a recent episode of Manchester: Unplugged, the web series by StreamGM that launched just last year and spotlights local songwriters.
Honing in on one of her newest releases, ‘Set Me Free’, which taps into that pure love for the keys.
While this clip shows a stripped-back version of the fully-fledged electronic studio version, with production playing a key role in defining her sound, she blends everything from classical music and jazz to neo-soul as well as drum and bass.
You hear the phrase ‘genre-bending’ thrown around a lot these days, but if this mid-20s star in the making isn’t the epitome of that term, then we don’t know who is.
Speaking more about her background in the short documentary film, which aired on YouTube this week, she talks about her first memory of visiting Forsyth Music Shop in Manchester city centre, and the inspiration behind the track in question.
You watch the Sâlo episode of Manchester: Unplugged in full here.
Detailed in the description of the newest edition of the online show, “Classically trained from the age of four, Sâlo’s journey runs through some of Manchester’s most important music spaces”, including time spent at the RNCM and Chetham’s School of Music and more.
As for the tune itself, not only do the lyrics revolve around a difficult patch in a personal relationship – this being one of the first times she felt like she’s fully opened up and not held back on letting people know what she’s speaking about – but it’s also the first track she’s produced and mixed entirely on her own.
Painstakingly mastered from a small studio at home, she almost “fell out of love” with the song altogether, but getting back to that simple joy of playing piano helped revive her passion for it.
With a stunning voice, natural musical talent when it comes to her instrument, and a great blend of different analogue and digital influences, Sâlo is definitely one to watch moving forward.
Emily Sergeant -
9th May 2022 
