SF’s “Flower Piano” Festival is Back for 2021 (Sept. 17-21)
After five successful years, and a pause in 2020 due to the pandemic, we are excited to bring back Flower Piano to transform San Francisco Botanical Garden once again into the city’s own alfresco concert hall where everyone is invited to play and listen.
In 2021, Flower Piano will be especially healing and restorative after an unprecedented year of the pandemic, social isolation, political and racial violence, and catastrophic wildfires. Flower Piano is a musical event and attraction that provides open access to music and pianos within the natural, outdoor environment of San Francisco Botanical Garden.
Participants are invited to explore the Garden’s global living plant collections as they seek out the pianos. 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. The most common word used to describe Flower Piano is “magical.”
Featured performances by renowned pianists, as well as those offered by our community partners, and musical ensembles will take place at select times and will range from classical, punk, beat, world, and improvisational music. From 9am to 6pm visitors will be encouraged to offer impromptu interludes between the scheduled concerts.
Flower Piano
Friday, September 17 – Tuesday, September 21 | 9 am – 6pm
San Francisco Botanical Garden, Golden Gate Park
Flower Piano is free with general admission – tickets will be made available later this summer once health order specifics are clearer.
General Admission: Free-$12Free for San Franciscans, for families receiving SNAP or CalFresh benefits, and for everyone else following $3-12 general admission, Flower Piano is truly accessible and encouraged for all.
About Sunset Piano
Mauro ffortissimo and Dean Mermell together launched Sunset Piano in 2013 when ffortissimo covertly rolled an old grand piano onto the bluffs over Half Moon Bay. As word spread through social media, the crowds grew way beyond the occasional dog walker. Thousands came to hear the music before the county ordered the piano removed. Since then, Sunset Piano has expanded this impromptu musical and social experiment, temporarily placing pianos in a wide variety of unexpected natural and urban settings around the Bay Area every year, from the top of Montara Mountain to Market Street. Flower Piano, a collaboration with San Francisco Botanical Garden, is Sunset Piano’s largest and most ambitious undertaking. Mermell’s documentary about Sunset Piano is entitled Twelve Pianos.
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