Watch: magical moments happen when pianos are available to everyone

• Pianos in Parks back for seventh year
• Local artists painted the instruments
• High profile names have played them

With kids from a nearby school enjoying recess on the grass, Sherry Dahl sat down at the brightly painted public piano next to the Rotary Centre and began to play.

As she sang ‘True Colours’ by Cyndi Lauper, more and more children circled around her to watch the captivating free performance.

Kelowna10 contacted Sherry through the Parkinson Seniors Centre and asked her to help show off the Pianos in Parks that have just been installed.

As a retired teacher and self-taught musician, she is no stranger to sharing cherished moments with kids and got them to sing along. It ended with many of them wanting to give her a hug.

For the seventh year in a row, Festivals Kelowna has brought back their beloved tradition, Pianos in Parks, hoping to inspire magical impromptu moments like these.

“It simply provides an opportunity for people to, as we put it, discover their inner Mozart,” executive director Renata Mills told Kelowna10

During the pandemic, only a few public pianos were set up, which still offered moments of joy and escape, according to Mills and accessibility is an important factor.

“Maybe a mom who doesn’t have the means to get a piano of her own still has the ability to bring her children with their sheet music and practice,” Mills said. “We’ve seen that, and we’ve actually received notes of thanks.”

This year, seven of the instruments are now around town with consideration to high pedestrian traffic, easy to find locations, away from traffic, and away from homes to avoid noise complaints.

Around downtown, they’re at: the art walk between the Rotary Centre and library parkade, one on the other side of the Rotary off Cawston Avenue, Kerry Park by Ogopogo, and Stuart Park.

Other locations include Kelowna Memorial Cemetery, City Park, and Roxby Square in Rutland.

Not only have passers-by tickled the ivories, but also grateful families who can’t afford a piano of their own; even celebrities like Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Keith Urban have been spotted playing them in past years.

“It speaks to the draw that if a touring musician who’s worldwide famous takes the time to play one of our public pianos, that is a pretty good affirmation that we’ve discovered something pretty cool,” Mills said.

The pianos also act as public art as each one is uniquely painted by local artists. The design will remain for the life of the instrument.

“We give [the artist] some loose guidelines of, ‘keep it artistic is the main one. We want to see something fancy and that represents you in the style of art that you like to create,’” project assistant, Saturday Sazaran said.

Of the seven pianos around Kelowna this year, four were freshly painted. They’ll be out in public until mid-to-late September.

The pianos, donated by the community, will remain in the public until mid to late September, depending on the weather conditions.

Despite having awnings built on them for shelter, the instruments have short life spans of maybe two years, and some have only lasted six months.

Each piano has a decal with information on reporting damage to Festivals Kelowna.