Vroni Holzmann is a multi-talented pianist, singer and cartoonist. Based in Scotland, she travels the world with her piano in the back of a van, taking tourists by surprise as she pops up in unlikely places and plays old stride tunes and other music. 

In this episode we hear how Vroni loves to make people happy with her moments of surreal magic. She tells me about the logistical challenges of lugging a heavy piano all over Europe: The permits, the tour partners, the ad hoc piano lifters, the tuners, and the repeat audiences. It “doesn’t make any sense” and yet somehow she keeps going back for more. If it rains, run!

This episode includes live recordings of Vroni playing the following tunes at Edinburgh’s Meadows:

• Take Five, by Paul Desmond
• Crawfish Boogie, by Walter Kocum
• Ain't Misbehavin', by Thomas "Fats" Waller, Andy Razaf and Harry Brooks 

This episode is also available on YouTube, with subtitles on screen: https://youtu.be/2kxcdpNvvjc 

​​Vroni’s petrol song: https://www.instagram.com/p/DEcjqzuPvKV/
Vroni’s cartoon about the notes falling out of the piano: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6tFNvZN13F/
Vroni - 10 years of street piano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_I82CEZM2E 
Vroni’s Insta: https://www.instagram.com/vroniholzmann/  

Vroni’s website: https://www.vronionline.net/

Photos of Vroni taken at Edinburgh Meadows, by Clare Sudbery and a helpful passer-by.

The theme music is a live street piano recording of a duet between Anthony Thomas and Kai Henry (@KaiStreetPiano).

A full transcript for this episode is available on Buzzsprout and most other podcast platforms.

#TheStreetPianist #pianists #streetpiano #streetpianist #thepiano #thepianouk

Have you been hearing a lot of depressing content lately? Give your soul a rest and listen to the next episode of The Street Pianist instead! 

Coming soon (on Monday 3rd March ’25) - the delightful Vroni Holzmann tells us about her wonderful cartoons and her adventures as she loads her upright piano into a van and travels all over Europe, bringing smiles and joy to passers by from Edinburgh to Tübingen.

I’m very happy to tell you that the grey British January and February have been considerably lightened for me as I listened back to my conversation with Vroni Holzmann last August. In this sneak preview, we talk about one of my favourites of her many cartoons, in which a pianist plays the notes out of the piano.

This episode on Buzzsprout (audio only - transcript available): https://www.buzzsprout.com/2365878/episodes/16531604 

This episode on YouTube: (subtitles on screen): https://youtu.be/ajHJ3OaPt_c 

The Street Pianist podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts, including thestreetpianist.buzzsprout.com.

The theme music is a live street piano recording of a duet between Anthony Thomas and Kai Henry (@KaiStreetPiano).

#TheStreetPianist #pianists #streetpiano #streetpianist #thepiano #thepianouk

I first met Johann Lourde when I saw him perform his own arrangement of Ace of Spades at the Aviva Studios in Manchester. He leapt on top of the piano stool and gave the best display of showmanship I’ve ever seen from an amateur pianist, so I couldn’t wait to interview him. 

Johann is a pianist and composer based in London. He plays classical and rock/metal music, and in this interview we discuss how he overcame stage fright via street pianos; what it’s like to meet lovely Claudia Winkelman; the support Johann gets from his fiercely proud mum; and Johann’s many performances - including at open mic nights and the North London Music Festival.

Note: Johann is actively looking for open mic opportunities with decent pianos, and other live performance opportunities.

This episode includes a clip of Johann playing Chopin’s Minute Waltz on the Elton John piano at St Pancras.

The “embodiment” book mentioned during the episode is "What Every Pianist Needs to Know About The Body", by Dr. Thomas Mark

Johann’s Insta (@johann.lourde)
Johann’s tiktok (@johannlourde)
Johann’s Spotify

This episode is also available on YouTube, with subtitles on screen: https://youtu.be/5r-SiO-bMkk 

The theme music is a live street piano recording of a duet between Anthony Thomas and Kai Henry (@KaiStreetPiano).

A full transcript for this episode is available on Buzzsprout and most other podcast platforms.

#TheStreetPianist #pianists #streetpiano #streetpianist #thepiano #thepianouk #claudiawinkleman

How do you get the attention of a distracted audience? Showmanship! In this sneak preview from ep 5 of The Street Pianist podcast, Johann Lourde talks about challenging passers by to be entertained by his flamboyant performances on train station pianos.

Meet Johann Lourde in the new episode of The Street Pianist - coming on Monday 17th Feb ‘25 - and hear how he makes maximum use of showmanship.

This episode on Buzzsprout (audio only - transcript available): https://www.buzzsprout.com/2365878/episodes/16559992 

This episode on YouTube: (subtitles on screen): https://youtu.be/5r-SiO-bMkk 

The Street Pianist podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts, including thestreetpianist.buzzsprout.com.

The theme music is a live street piano recording of a duet between Anthony Thomas and Kai Henry (@KaiStreetPiano).

#TheStreetPianist #pianists #streetpiano #streetpianist #thepiano #thepianouk

Why is a piano better than a table? And what’s the point of gates? Listen to episode 4 of The Street Pianist, meet Mikey Grant (@michaelgrantpiano), and find the answers to these questions and more!

This episode on Buzzsprout (audio only - transcript available): https://www.buzzsprout.com/2365878/episodes/16489352 

This episode on YouTube: (subtitles on screen): https://youtu.be/euo5Ti3_6h0

The Street Pianist podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts, including thestreetpianist.buzzsprout.com.

The theme music is a live street piano recording of a duet between Anthony Thomas and Kai Henry (@KaiStreetPiano).

#TheStreetPianist #pianists #streetpiano #streetpianist #thepiano #thepianouk

Mikey Grant is a session keyboard player and composer who’s surpassed 1000 gigs over the last 37 years. He’s played with dozens of different bands (including the amazingly-named Pete Loaf), in every imaginable setting. He composes his own music and gets huge joy from the creative process. The support of Mikey’s music-loving dad has encouraged him to keep learning new musical skills, and his multi-talented grandfather (draughtsman, jazz band leader, music promoter and journalist) is a constant source of inspiration.

Mikey explains how he writes music because he wants to hear the “beautiful noise”. He tells me what it’s like to be at work delivering mail on Scottish streets when his head is full of his latest romantically classical composition. We chat excitedly about the phenomenon of street pianos and our shared experience as participants on Channel 4’s The Piano, before moving onto Mikey’s childhood discovery of The Entertainer via his grandad’s Starship piano, and his school-years habit of playing piano at surprise parties for teachers in the gym hall.

Note for the eagle-eared confused, on behalf of my menopausal brain: Emerson, Lake and Palmer did not write Big Bubbles, No Trouble. That was Ellis, Beggs and Howard. D’oh. 

This episode includes a recording of Quadrilogy Part 1, Mikey's original piece, described by him as "Part one of a four part quadrilogy, completely inspired by the people who I met on The Piano."

Photos of Mikey taken by Vroni Holzmann, Ally Fogg and Clare Sudbery.

The theme music is a live street piano recording of a duet between Anthony Thomas and Kai Henry (@KaiStreetPiano).

A full transcript for this episode is available on Buzzsprout and most other podcast platforms.

#TheStreetPianist #pianists #streetpiano #streetpianist

Who is Extremely Sloppy Productions (ESP)?

In June 2024, I was checking out the piano donated by The Piano (Channel 4's TV programme) and I saw this young man playing. I was fascinated by his flair on the keys and wanted to know more. In this episode we discover how ESP has only had one month's worth of piano lessons, how he won a tenner in Battle of the Bands after playing despite an injured wrist, and how he's earnt the reputation of "the music guy" amongst his schoolfriends.

You can check out ESP's music on YouTube here (youtube.com/@extremelysloppyproductions), and on SoundCloud here (on.soundcloud.com/ngfFY).

A full transcript for this episode is available on Buzzsprout and most other podcast platforms.

Have you ever sung I Will Survive in public?

Most people don’t think of themselves as people who sing in public, until you ask them if they’ve ever sung I Will Survive… and suddenly the story changes.

Anthony Thomas can be found playing street pianos most weekends, and is full of compassion, enthusiasm and talent. He loves to duet with other pianists and is generous to a fault. Anthony and I met via The Piano TV show, and in this episode we hear an original recording of the magical moment when Anthony met the Performer of The Night (SPOILERS!) from the season two final of @ThePianoUK (www.channel4.com/programmes/the-piano).

We also hear about how when I met Anthony he offered to accompany me while I sang in the street, how Anthony taught himself piano, the power of audience participation with classic songs like Bohemian Rhapsody and I Will Survive, how he met his girlfriend during lockdown via a shared love of music, and all the different cities he’s played in.

Here is the moment described in this episode when Anthony duetted with the Performer of the Night from The Piano season 2 finale: https://www.tiktok.com/@luminalflight/video/7378702326875311393

Anthony can be found @anthony_mufc on instagram, and @luminalflight on Tiktok.

The theme music is a live street piano recording of a duet between Anthony Thomas and Kai Henry (@KaiStreetPiano).

A full transcript for this episode is available on Buzzsprout and most other podcast platforms.

Have you ever sung I Will Survive in public? Most people don’t think of themselves as people who sing in public, until you ask them if they’ve ever sung I Will Survive… and suddenly the story changes.

In this episode, we hear about how I met Anthony when he offered to accompany me while I sang in the street, how Anthony taught himself piano, the power of audience participation with classic songs like Bohemian Rhapsody and I Will Survive, how he met his girlfriend during lockdown via a shared love of music, and all the different cities he’s played in.

Note: There is another version of this episode, in which we hear an original recording of the magical moment when Anthony met the Performer of The Night (SPOILERS!) from the season two final of @ThePianoUK (www.channel4.com/programmes/the-piano). The spoilers have been edited out of this version of this episode.

Anthony can be found @anthony_mufc on instagram, and @luminalflight on Tiktok.

The theme music is a live street piano recording of a duet between Anthony Thomas and Kai Henry (@KaiStreetPiano).

A full transcript for this episode is available on Buzzsprout and most other podcast platforms.

Have you ever wondered who plays street piano and why?

Anthony Thomas can be found playing street pianos most weekends, in Manchester and across the North. He loves to duet with other pianists and and is full of compassion, enthusiasm and talent. Anthony and I met via The Piano TV show, and for reasons which are partially revealed in this episode, he knows a little more than most about the climax of the new series. So this interview is going out in two parts, with @ThePianoUK spoilers in part two!

In part one we hear about how Anthony first started playing street pianos after the first lockdown restrictions were lifted, how he met his girlfriend during lockdown via a mutual love of music, and how he has played street pianos all over the UK and indeed the world, duetting with other pianists and accompanying random singers like myself.

Part two of Anthony's interview will be published after the last episode of The Piano Season Two has been aired on Sunday 9th June.

Anthony can be found @anthony_mufc on instagram, and @luminalflight on Tiktok.

The theme music is a live street piano recording of a duet between Anthony Thomas and Kai Henry.

A full transcript for this episode is available on Buzzsprout and most other podcast platforms.