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Flower Piano 2022 to Fill SF Botanical Garden with Stellar Musicians, Including LGBTQ Community Favorites – San Francisco Bay Times

  • October 25, 2022

In the final days of summer and for the seventh time since 2015, Flower Piano will once again transform the San Francisco Botanical Garden into the city’s own alfresco concert hall where everyone is invited to play and listen. It will take place from 10 am–6 pm beginning on Friday, September 16, and will conclude on Tuesday, September 20.

“Flower Piano is located at that magical intersection of music and nature,” said Dean Mermell, co-founder, together with Mauro ffortissimo, of event partner Sunset Piano. “It’s a uniquely safe outdoor space where we can be our best as humans, enjoying the Bay Area’s finest musicians in the city’s most beautiful setting.”

Participants are invited to explore the Garden’s global living plant collections as they seek out the 12 pianos spread out across the 55-acre living museum. At each of the pianos, there will be scheduled professional performances, open play time for participants, and community partner performances—reflecting a range of genres, ages, and cultures. The experience brings joy, hope, awe, and a deep sense of community. Participants are inspired to become Garden members and enjoy other Garden programs throughout the year.

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“We are excited to work with our partners at the Recreation and Park Department, Sunset Piano, and all the musicians and community organizations that bring Flower Piano to life, and I am grateful to our sponsors and staff that make this special event happen,” said Stephanie Linder, CEO of the Gardens of Golden Gate Park.

New this year is a very special opening event, Fall and Fly, on Wednesday, September 14, from 5–6:30 pm, where a groundbreaking commissioned work created for 12 grand pianos will be performed on the Garden’s Great Meadow. San Francisco-based composer Benjamin Gribble has written Fall and Fly, an experimental work

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Flower Piano event puts a dozen pianos in SF Botanical Gardens

  • September 25, 2022

Flower Piano enchants SF’s Botanical Garden with melodies and memories

San Francisco’s Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park is once again being transformed into an al fresco concert hall and everyone is invited to attend and listen. The Flower Piano event is scheduled Friday through Tuesday.

SAN FRANCISCO – Beneath a giant, native tree from New Zealand, the beautiful notes of Chopin soared from a piano nestled under the branches at the San Francisco Botanical Gardens.

“The setting can’t be beat. As a stage, this wonderful tree with the hanging plants. It’s just so beautiful,” said Ian Scarfe, the pianist who

The beauty of the SF Botanical Gardens usually isn’t measured in notes, but this is the seventh Flower Piano weekend, when people can marvel at flowers and plants mixed in with music and pianos.

“There are 12 pianos throughout our 55 acres, and they’re everywhere from the great meadow to the redwood grove,” said Stephanie Linder, Executive Director of the San Francisco Botanical Gardens Society which partners with sponsors and Sunset Piano to hold the event.

Meandering along the garden paths, people hear melodies floating from the ferns and forests.

From classical music pieces penned by Beethoven, to jazz, to songs by the Beatles or Lady Gaga, there were plenty of choices for the audience.

Professional musicians with the Community Music Center, SF Jazz, and SF Symphony have all partnered with the Flower Piano program. There are also impromptu performances by passersby.

“We also have lots of open playtime so anyone who comes in can find a piano and sit down and play, and sometimes they hear the most amazing experiences,” said Linder.

In the rhododendron garden, Jose Lobo sang and played the piano with a violinist joining in. Dozens of people paused to listen, circling the piano.

The

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December 2023
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