Piano Pilgrimage

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Piano Pilgrimage: Episode 2

Episode 2

BBC Radio 4 - Piano Pilgrimage, Episode 2

Jazz pianist Jamie Cullum visits some remarkable places pianos are found in the UK today.

The jazz pianist Jamie Cullum, learns more about the importance of pianos in community life – past and present.  From 2014.

In the second part of his pilgrimage, jazz pianist Jamie Cullum uncovers the central role pianos have played in our communities in the past, and demonstrates the instrument's continued importance in many people's lives today.
 
Beginning at the family home of the Brontë sisters in West Yorkshire, he learns what the instrument meant for women in terms of courtship and their potential for marriage in the 1800s.
 
Jamie then heads to a school in Northern Ireland where the piano still plays a key part in the girls' education and wider social lives. After hearing a talented young pianist play, he performs an impromptu piece with the school choir around their grand piano.
 
Once a film student himself, Jamie looks at the position of the piano in silent cinema and learns about the resurgence of the phenomenon today at an open-air event in south London.
 
The pilgrimage eventually takes Jamie and his rescued old piano to a London pub to meet Chas and Dave. The three of them discuss the instrument's contribution to pub culture, before Jamie joins the Rockney duo for a crowd-pleasing sing-a-long around the piano.
 
Produced by Andrea Rangecroft.
A Folded Wing production for BBC Radio 4.

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