World’s largest piano has left with great success in Hamilton.
Cate Prestidge initiated the idea of bringing the world’s largest piano to Hamilton after it had been in Auckland.
Prestidge thought the piano was very successful in Hamilton but wished it could have stayed longer.
“There was quite a lot of momentum built, especially in the second week,” she said.
A third week would have consolidated the tour but the piano is now on its way home to Timaru to be played in the barn, before the next opportunity arises.
She believes there was a turnout of about 500 or more people over the two weeks.
According to Adrian Mann, the turnout and friendliness of the public was much better in Hamilton compared to Auckland.
Prestidge has a family association with the maker of the piano Adrian Mann. Cate’s mother Jan Prestidge, is on tour with him, and had earlier asked Cate over a phone call if they could ‘pop in’ to Hamilton with the piano.
Prestidge is well known within the Waikato creative industry for her role at Wintec as Team Manager of Communications in Media Arts.
Prestidge took to twitter asking ‘who wants the worlds longest piano?’ Creative Waikato and the Waikato Museum responded to the tweet.
Unfortunately, the museum could not fit the seven metre long piano into their lift, so Creative Waikato, with its premises on street level, happily hosted the event for two weeks.
Prestidge was eager to support Mann on the tour, and she hosted him at her home.
“He came home every night to our place saying ‘oh that was great and we met all these people,’” she said.
Cate and husband Warren were also prepared to fund the cost of bringing the piano to Hamilton, but were lucky enough to get a grant from Creative Communities Fund.
They promote events related to music, theatre and visual arts.
Prestidge is not involved in any other arts projects personally, but through her role at Wintec, Media Arts is keen to continue supporting artistic endeavours around Hamilton.
She aims to work with Creative Waikato again and the Hamilton City Council to re-energize the middle of Hamilton.
