Piano Day Amelia Island
March 24, 2020
Editor’s Note: When Stéphane Pitois added a post on Facebook inviting people to participate in Piano Day Amelia Island, I thought, “How cool is that! I want to learn more!” What I learned is that Stéphane is talented in many ways. Not only has he prepared a great website for recording, but his timing to make Piano Day Amelia Island a virtual event could not be better. Thank you Stéphane! His story follows.
By Stéphane Pitois
I am a professional software developer and an amateur composer. I have played the piano most of my life, and I have written musical instrumentals for about just as long.
I first thought of organizing a Piano Day celebration in Amelia Island back in 2018, when I first heard about the global Piano Day event started by German pianist and composer Nils Frahm in 2015. I thought it would be nice to do something so positive on our small island, to help bring the community together.
On March 20, 2020, just 8 days before Piano Day, and several days into self-distancing because of COVID-19, I just had the idea of making the event virtual. All these people around the world were being quarantined but they were also recording or live-streaming themselves singing, playing music. I thought that surely people in our local community would want to participate in such an event on Piano Day. So I posted about it on Facebook, got some positive feedback, some encouragements, and even some submissions, and other people telling me they would be part of it. I updated the website with information about how to participate, and I am now working on composing a new piece for the event.
I am looking forward to this event. That was very much last minute, with such short notice. I just hope people will be excited and submit whatever recordings they have – even older ones. I also hope people will be live-streaming that day and submitting links to their streams in advance. Everything is on the website to make it easy to share links to SoundCloud, YouTube, or live streams. The participation of local piano lovers is key to making this event a success. The playlists will be revealed on March 28, 2020.
To visit the Piano Day Amelia Island website, click here.