A GRAND piano which has been in storage while renovations were carried out at a Haddington town centre building will be the centrepiece of a new concert programme.
Haddington Concert Society’s Bösendorfer grand piano was previously housed in Haddington Town House.
However, the building was closed in the spring of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and then £600,000 renovation works.
The building is not open to public groups to use and the instrument has spent the last few years in storage.
Now, it has found a new home in St Mary’s Parish Church.
Fiona Finch, deputy chair of the society, said: “This is a very special piano.
“The Bösendorfer came here in 2005 from the famous Vienna Music Society (Musikverein Wien) as a result of local fundraising and donations, together with help from the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Grant.
“Very few towns of the size of Haddington have a piano of such quality, one that has had the hands of so many famous pianists upon it.
“It's a big piano, a proper concert grand with a mirror-like lacquer of the deepest black.
“Our piano has four extra keys for low notes that you don't find on most pianos, which help to give the unique and distinctive voice that it is renowned for.”
READ MORE: Haddington Town House to open to council but not public
The piano will feature in Haddington Concert Society's Music Close UP season, a series of six Sunday afternoon concerts, running from October to March.
The curtain goes up on October 13 when Scotland-based Russian pianist Nikita Lukinov will put the piano through its paces with music by Brahms and Tchaikovsky, before finishing with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
Not just concert pianists can get their hands on the Bösendorfer – the piano is often used for music examinations and the East Lothian Schools Piano Festival.
Members of the public will also have the chance to play it as part of the Open Doors weekend on September 28 (11am–4pm) and September 19 (1.30–3pm).
Details of all six concerts are on haddingtonconcertsociety.com and tickets can be bought in advance from thebrunton.co.uk/whats-on
Tickets are priced at £16 and a subscription to the full set of six costs £78 – a saving of more than 15 per cent.
Admission is free for under-26s if booked in advance.
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