PIANOS FOR PEOPLE

Rodgers Townsend designed a campaign for Pianos for People that recently won several awards at the Advertising Clubs ADDY Awards, including a Gold Award for a short film featuring Royce Martin, directed by my son Nate Townsend.

It expresses the fundamental philosophy of Pianos for People - that music can be an invaluable, emotional resource in life, so we must work to make it more available to more people. It's that simple.

The interactive 'thank you notes' website below was part of that campaign, and will allow you to hear directly from some of our students why your support matters.

Thank you, friends.

Tom Townsend

Founder & President

WATCH THE SHORT FILM HERE (1 min, 36 seconds)

THANK YOU NOTES

FEEL THE FLOW

When Khyla hits the keys, she feels something deep inside.

Hear Khyla and other students say thank you to the donors and supporters who make their free pianos and lessons possible.

THANKYOU.PIANOSFORPEOPLE.ORG

Photo: Mike Cummings

And thank you Rodgers Townsend.

NEW GRAND PIANO IN TUNE WITH GROWTH

Pianos for People has taken delivery of a beautiful new grand piano, adding an important resource to the free piano school.

Terry Hammer, owner of St. Louis based vintage license plate seller Shoplicenseplates.com was pleased to announce the donation of a Henry F. Miller Baby Grand Piano valued at just under $10,000.00 to Pianos for People.

The Free Piano School on Cherokee, which caters to more than 130 students for regular, weekly lessons and workshops, has more than tripled in size since it opened in October 2014. Some of our more advanced students are hungry for the experience of practicing on a grand piano, and our refurbished piano annex ("The Piannex") now serves as a second group teaching and event space, room to refurbish our pianos, as well as a private practice studio for students and the

broader community. Thank you Terry!

READ MORE IN THE RIVERFRONT TIMES HERE

Dedicated student Hadassah plays our new baby grand. Photo: Daniel Hill, RFT

SUPER THEORY SATURDAY A SUPER DAY

On Saturday March 3rd, every space was filled with students, activity, teachers and our newly launched Piano Parents Organization (PPO). There were over 60 young people engaged in workshops, games, craft and the ever popular Pizza Party!
These bi-annual community events reinforce what the students learn in a fun and engaging way.

During the Pizza Party, everyone was rocking out to one of our Music Production student's beats - listen to an excerpt of

STEPHEN'S COMPOSITION HERE

Members of our new Piano Parents Organization, and Aaliyah our Saturday Intern

Scenes from our recent Super Theory Saturday

FERGUSON FLOURISHING

In October 2016, we opened our first satellite studio in Ferguson. With ongoing and generous support from the Siteman Family Foundation, we now teach two afternoons a week in Ferguson, adding Music Production Workshops (Garageband) to our group and private lessons. And for the first time, we will be offering a week-long Free Summer Music Camp in Ferguson, in addition to our Cherokee programs.


Marquan and his new iPad

Marquan is 14 years old and he enrolled in both lessons and music production workshops at the Ferguson Studio. Marquan, a student at KIPP, is very studious and enjoys music production so much that he saved up his money to buy his very own iPad.

Ferguson Holiday Recital December 2017

SPEAKING OF GROWTH...

With a growing student body, we were in need of a waiting area for our kids and families. Over the past couple of months we have been refurbishing our dingy basement into a new waiting room, practice space and storage area - and it is a total transformation!

Our Development Co-ordinator and Teacher, Amy Seibert worked with teacher Hannah Herum to catalogue and organize the abundance of music that has been donated to us. This area now also has an accessible MUSIC LIBRARY. Students can borrow or even take and keep music of many different varieties and levels.

Our new waiting room, practice area and music resource library

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WHY I LIKE PIANO SAFARI!

We also received a generous donation to ensure that each child has their very own music method-book to keep, which has made an enormous difference to students arriving prepared for lessons, pride and the ability to work ahead if kids feel ready. Read below why our students love Piano Safari!