Unique site powered by 16 pianos
A UNIQUE feat of architectural and musical fusion, The Piano Mill Project near Stanthorpe, is the first building to win a national Australian music award.
It received the Award for Excellence in Experimental Music at this year’s 2017 Art Music Awards.
The collaboration between architect Bruce Wolfe and his wife Jocelyn with composer Erik Griswold involved 16 pianos.
They were sourced from Brisbane, Stanthorpe, Warwick and Toowoomba and housed in the nine-metre high purpose-built structure.
The couple and Mr Griswold were presented with the award last week ahead of 40 other nominations from around the country.
The Piano Mill Project is nestled in the forest at Harrigan’s Ln and Mr Wolfe said it was so much fun doing something no one else had achieved before.
Mr Wolfe said once the idea had been formulated, the venture took about one and a half years to complete.
He worked closely with Mr Griswold who immediately jumped on board for writing the music for the pianos.
Mr Wolfe said the Piano Mill Project involved composing music for 16 pianos, as each instrument was different in age and stage of upkeep.
This led to the ground-breaking concept of a “building powered by 16 pianos” and a project that paid tribute to the musical history of Outback Australia.
“The idea was to have these pianos packed fairly densely into a space and the design result is something of a cube with a floor plate of about 4.5sqm,” he said.
“It is simply amazing how many people have pianos that are not in use. It does give further validity to that notion of a land over-run with old pianos.”
Mr Griswold said it was awesome to win the award and he believed the judges had been impressed by such an audacious, large-scale project.
Australian Music Centre CEO John Davis said the seventh national 2017 Art Music Awards received an amazing range of nominations representing an extensive range of talent from around Australia.