Piano City Milano 2023

The citywide festival that brings music to the streets of Milano

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Piano City Milano 2023 returns on May 19th, 20th and 21st! This piano festival has been the city’s summer soundtrack and has grown in harmony with all the changes in Milano, since 2011. 

Over 260 unmissable concerts will be held throughout the city, featuring more than 300 artists performing in 140 splendid locations, to entertain and connect with the public through the enticing notes of the piano. 

The concerts, ranging from classical to pop, jazz and electronics, will resonate throughout entire neighbourhoods, both old and new, in cultural landmarks, in areas undergoing regeneration and in venues that will open their doors to the public, especially for this occasion. 

 

As per tradition, the GAM – Galleria d'Arte Moderna gardens become the beating heart of the festival which, between the main stage and the park, will resonate with non-stop music for all three days.

 

Check out the highlights below and choose your favourite concerts from the programme.

 

All appointments are open to all with free admission subject to availability, unless otherwise indicated on each specific event. Reservations can be made on the official website www.pianocitymilano.it from May 4th.

Discover the Piano City Milano programme

HIGHLIGHTS

PREVIEW WITH MIKA, FRIDA BOLLANI MAGONI & PAOLO JANNACCI AND FREE INSTALLATION SOUNDSCAPE

A special preview to Piano City 2023 at Castello Sforzesco, on Wednesday May 17th at 21:00, with an exclusive not-to-be-missed concert from Mika. Reservations mandatory, available from Tuesday May 9th at 16:00 on the following link.

 

Thursday, May 18th at the Liberty Amphitheatre in Piazzetta Liberty, Frida Bollani Magoni and Paolo Jannacci will perform a special preview of the festival with a concert for two and four hands. Places are limited, available by reservation from May 4th.

 

From Friday, May 19th to Sunday 21st (from 10:00 to 20:00), the Apple Piazza Liberty amphitheatre will also host the evocative SOUNDSCAPE - Sound of Liberty installation: a journey through the elements - forest, water, wind and space - that gives life to the soundscape created by Demian Dorelli and Alberto Fabris.

The installation is free, which enables anyone passing by to immerse themselves in the enchanting auditory experience of this sound world.

PIANO CITY INAUGURATION CONCERT AT THE GAM

On Friday May 19th, at 21:00, the Piano City festival will be inaugurated by Novecento: Il Duello, an unusual and fascinating performance on the main stage in the GAM garden. 

 

Alessandro Baricco and Stefano Bollani will narrate Novecento, the ‘pianist on the ocean’ who evolved from the plot of Baricco's novel to become the protagonist of comics, films and playlists. This time the story is different: Baricco narrates an original version that will be performed on the piano by Bollani. A not-to-be-missed live piano challenge between Novecento and Jelly Roll Morton!

 

Free admission subject to availability.

THE HEART OF THE PIANO FESTIVAL: CONCERTS AT THE GAM

The GAM - Galleria d'Arte Moderna gardens are the central hub of the festival: concerts will be held throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday on the two stages in the park, starting from 10:30, while the Main Stage will host performances from the big names in the evening.

 

On Saturday, May 20th at 20:00, the pianist Jin Ju inaugurates the evening, followed at 21:00 by Koki Nakano with original music entitled Oceanic Feeling. At 22:00, Joep Bevin takes to the stage with Hermetism, and the evening will conclude at 23:00 with Jeremiah Fraites performing Piano Piano.

 

Sunday, May 21st commences at 20:00 with classic music from Michelle Candotti, at 21:00 we enter Franco D'Andrea’s fascinating world of jazz, then at 22:00 Nduduzo Makhatini will continue to entertain the audience to the sound of jazz. The concert will conclude at 23:00 with original and pop music by Venerus.

THE DAWN CONCERT

The traditional dawn concert is not to be missed, it offers the public a unique and incredible musical awakening. This year it will be held on Sunday, May 21st at 05:00 in the piazza facing the Monumental Cemetery, with the notes of young international pianist Demian Dorelli.

 

Born and raised in London, Dorelli is a contemporary composer and pianist. His influences range from Keith Jarrett, Madness, Tchaikovsky, Einaudi and Herbie Hancock to Arvo Pärt and opera music. In 2021 he released Pink Moon, A Journey on Piano, reinterpreting and paying homage to Nick Drake's famous album, and recently released his second album My Window, inspired by paintings by David Hockney, Vermeer and Menzel.

PARTICIPATE IN A PIANO LESSON TO DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE MAESTROS

The Piano Lessons initiative is also back on the programme, with meetings where the great maestros reveal the secrets of the trade.

 

On Saturday, appointment at the Triennale Milano with Jacopo Mazzonelli and Eleonora Wegher, and at the Rotonda della Besana with Carlotta Ferrari (no reservation needed), while on Saturday and Sunday a series of successive events will be at the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology, and at the Volvo Studio in Viale della Liberazione (by reservation from May 4th).

GET READY FOR TWO MUSICAL MARATHONS…

Also, not to be missed are the two wonderful musical marathons: they start on Saturday at 10:30 at the Biblioteca Sormani in Corso di Porta Romana with Vienna dal Settecento a oggi (Vienna from the eighteenth century to today).

In collaboration with the G. Donizetti Conservatory of Bergamo, 10 pianists will take turns on the keys for 3 and a half hours, playing pieces by W. A. Mozart, A. Schonberg, J. Brahms, F. Schubert, F. J. Haydn and L. van Beethoven.

Free admission subject to availability.

 

Also on Saturday, the second marathon will be held at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory starting at 19:00 and ending at midnight: the Conservatory students dedicate a large anthology of Nocturnes, Serenades, Moonlights and other musical variations on the theme of the night, from sundown to the crack of dawn, to Piano City Milano.

On the programme: music by Mozart, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Janacek, Debussy, Scriabin, Ravel, Granados, Cowell and Copland.

Booking on the official website from May 4th

NEW FOR 2023: PIANO READING

The absolute novelty of this year’s edition is the Piano Reading initiative: some great contemporary pianists will dialogue with writers and personalities hailing from the world of literature. 

 

On Saturday, Antonio Scurati, Siwen Chen, Marina Miani and Carla Sgoifo will step onto the stage at the Triennale at 12:00, while Sara Porro and Ginevra Costantini Negri will meet the public at 23:30 at Eataly Milano Smeraldo (by reservation only).

 

On Sunday, Gianni Biondillo and Enrico Intra will take to the stage at 12:30 in the ADI Design Museum, and at 19:00 Marco Rossari and Eliana Grasso will wrap up the new reading initiative at the Rotonda della Besana.