Bach in Schöneberg, Free Jazz in Friedrichshain

Piano City Berlin is on this weekend, a music festival that takes place in living rooms rather than in concert halls. The festival is an initiative of Radialsystem V, the cultural centre that calls itself "a new space for the arts in Berlin," and it invites listeners to piano concerts in private homes. The performers are not concert pianists. They just might be your neighbors.


It all began with a concert at the German-Finnish Society in Turku in southwestern Finland, in April 2009. After the concert, pianist Andreas Kern  met up with three other guest performers in a cafe. They talked about the loneliness of the professional pianist. Unlike musicians in an ensemble or an orchestra, the pianist spends hours alone with his instrument. But what if you made the experience less solitary, if only for a day -- or a weekend?

There must be several hundreds of pianists in Berlin who had something to offer an audience, Kern thought  -- students at the music conservatories such as the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler or the Universität der Künste, those who taught music or played for pleasure.  He was right. When he created a website inviting Berliners to send in videos of their performance and their reasons for wanting to be part of Piano City, he got hundreds of responses from professionals, amateurs, and shades of in-between -- Berliners from all walks of life, all ages, playing everything from classical to standard and free jazz to original compositions. They had one thing in common: they were passionate about the piano.

photo: Kitty Kleist-Heinrich

Sophia Grevesmühl, music professional who studied at the Universität der Künste, was one of the first to send in her video to Kern's web site, and this weekend she will be performing Brahms in her Kreuzberg apartment, crammed with her favorite books and ficus house plants. Her sofa and kitchen chairs will be the "concert hall," and she plans to add a homey touch with tea and cookies. Sophia likes the idea of playing for people she has never seen before and being able to chat with them later. What brings them to my concert of all those featured in the program, she wants to know.

If you cringe at the thought of hearing one more amateur rendition of Bach's Prelude in C, this might not be for you. But if you like the idea of getting to know ordinary Berliners, some of whom have extraordinary talent, and traipsing through their living rooms (the smallest takes no more than eight guests) while listening to Prokofiev and free jazz, the weekend holds promise.

Piano City Berlin features 70 Berlin pianists and takes place on Saturday, October 23 and Sunday, October 24. Tickets (5.35 EUR) are available only at the festival website at www.pianocity-berlin.com
where you can also view videos of the pianists. The exact address is available only after you make the purchase (although the listing does specify the city district).


Piano City is followed by Musik in den Häusern der Stadt (Music in City Homes), which takes place all over Germany, from November 2 to 7, and features a range of instruments. There will be 19 concerts in Berlin. See www.kunstsalon.de for more information.