New grand piano arrives in time for St Magnus Festival
Seated is chairman of the St Magnus Festival Leslie Burgher.
Orkney’s first Steinway ‘Model D’ concert grand piano has arrived, just in time for this year’s St Magnus Festival.
St Magnus International Festival has raised £115,000 to buy the piano, which arrived in Kirkwall today.
The piano was selected from Steinway’s workshops in Hamburg by the Festival’s Artistic Director, Alasdair Nicolson, and world-renowned Scottish concert pianist, Steven Osborne earlier this year. The piano has made its way on a journey of over 1200 miles from Hamburg to London, and on May 30, set off on the final leg of its journey from London to Orkney, arriving in Kirkwall just this afternoon.
The fundraising began in 2010 when composer, Alasdair Nicolson, became Artistic Director of the St Magnus International Festival and identified the need to for a new, top of the range, concert grand piano.
The piano’s inaugural concerts will be at this year’s 40th birthday festival, and just one of the piano highlights will be international Russian pianist, Alexei Volodin in both recital and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2.
The funds were raised over a six-year campaign and around half came from grants from Creative Scotland, Orkney Islands Council and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The rest came from a total of 264 private donations including contributions from Nexen Petroleum and local craft firm Judith Glue.
The piano will belong to the St Magnus International Festival and will be housed in the mediaeval St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall when not being used at the festival.