May 10th, 2025Guerrillas subversively tinkling the ivories

The Maine Piano Guerrillas may have been a hit during the Castlemaine Fringe Festival – but they are not giving up the gig just yet.

The MPG’s project saw 10 pianos placed around the town, meaning there were  plenty of impromptu performances across the four weeks of the festival.  

But despite the festival being over, the pianos aren’t going anywhere. And it all  makes for a great story.

Helen Sandercoe told The Local that it all started seven months ago when three  people were having coffee at the Wesley Hill Market and one said “let’s put pianos  in for the Fringe – and then a couple of weeks later, one suggested to make piano  guerrillas our thing. And we were off.”  

Helen said the real guerrilla act was to put a piano in the underpass of the  railway. At midnight. “And feedback is that it’s changed how people feel about the underpass, they feel safer.”  

The pianos, mostly uprights, were sourced from “people who don’t want to keep  their pianos anymore and people who are moving”.  

“It’s that thing about brown furniture and, you know, no one in the family plays  the piano, so it just sits there. Then you sell the house and you try to leave it behind and the new owner says, no, you have to get rid of it.  “We had that story twice.

“Two of the piano owners had to get rid of them because  they’d not played them. But, of course, that’s a problem for an old piano because if  it’s not regularly tuned, then obviously all sorts of things can happen. And one of  them had rats inside – that was the player piano – but they’re all nice instruments. There’s a charm in them, a real charm.”  

The pianos will now stay where they are – ready to be played at any time. The  thought of vandalism is also there, but so far, so good.

Pop-up piano concerts are  more likely to be on the agenda.  Funding has come from Mt Alexander Shire Council in the form of a $500 grant but any other funding would be gratefully received.  

“We’re always up for more funding. Just to move the piano and tune them is  quite a bit. But we’d love this project to keep going and bring music happiness to this  area.”  

Another guerrilla, Greg Maxwell, said while he and Helen were not musicians,  they would love more to be involved in the future.  

“Lots of musicians don’t want to play in public but it seems to me that that’s exactly what we need. We need these people to come out and just share the piano as a  community instrument.  

“One of our young players, David, talks about it being like being around the  campfire, it changes the mood of people.  

“He says even playing for his family, everybody relaxes, the tone drops. They sit  and listen and enjoy his playing. And I think that’s what we’re trying to rediscover.”  

Helen said the guerrillas were moving from a group from saving pianos to being a  group that uses or activates the pianos by having pop-up concerts around the town.  

“We’ve come up with this idea of milk crate concerts where you bring a milk crate  and cushion, and you just sit there for half an hour and listen. And get to meet the  person next to you.”  

Greg said the stories of the pianos were often touching.  “One of the pianos came from Elphinstone and it’s at the Taproom. The family’s  great-grandmother or grandmother bought it 70 years ago in Bendigo and it’s stayed  in the family all this time.  

“The grandson told us the journey of it and how his father used to play it regularly  and then it got to the stage where they wanted to move it on. But they didn’t until the  Fringe.  

“And Maria, her story’s quite remarkable. She had this piano in Fryerstown that  was in a shed. It’s the one that’s in the underpass because it couldn’t be tuned. She told us this whole story about it, about how it had come with her when she left home and  she’d had it her whole life.  

“She was just so thrilled that we were giving this piano a new life. And if we do  swap it out, it will be the one that will go on the funeral pyre for a midwinter festival.  A final sort of viking funeral.  

“That’s the emotional relationship that people have with pianos. She knew it had  had this wonderful last few weeks of life.”  

Pictured, Maine Piano Guerrillas Helen Sandercoe and Alan Joyce .

Words: Donna Kelly | Image: Kyle Barnes