It seems that Cobar is full of talented piano players with seven local musicians showing off their skills at Cobar’s Pop Up Piano launch on Sunday.
A group of almost 50 locals (and a few interested passing visitors) were treated to a piano concert that featured classical pieces, Coldplay’s hit song Clocks and the theme music from the Pirates of Caribbean movie.
The free concert came about after Cobar recently received a free Pop Up Piano as part of a promotion by the ABC.
To celebrate the Year of the Piano and the new ABC iview series The Piano, they put a call out to communities to receive the gift of music in their town.
Out of 380 public nominations, 19 towns across the country were selected to receive a community piano, and Cobar was one of them.
The Piano has been unearthing everyday pianists from all over Australia through the celebration of the street piano, with regular Australians invited to play the piano at various locations around the country.
One of the local pianists who caught everyone’s attention on Sunday was 22 year old Tony Mitchell who played from memory.
Tony has been playing for about 10 years and is self-taught.
Tony said he did have a few lessons when he was a young child but said he wasn’t keen to play the songs he was given by his teacher.
He wanted to play his own music and so he turned to YouTube.
“I can listen to a song and play it for you, but it takes me about 10 minutes to set it up and try and play around with it to make it work,” Tony said.
Other talented locals who played on Sunday included Isabella Degn, Leah McClure, Tim McClure, Cathy Francisco, Joanna McClure and Ness Cavalot.
Local music teacher Judy Toomey and the Seniors Singing Group also performed as part of Sunday’s Pop Up Piano launch.
