Playing Piano Music Live in Prague in July of 2017

if you go to the Prague expats website and look for the forums you should ger folk who are more liely to be able to help you.Rememder you may require a work permit to play even just a short set but the folk on the ex pat site will be able to advise.

Thanks for the reply, however that site would not be of help. I looked at it, and it is geared specifically towards musicians looking to get paid for their services. I, pretty much am not looking for that. Just to find a few local places in Prague with a decent piano or keyboard, where I can play a few songs or a short set at no charge for the experience. So really, a work visa would not be needed. Should you have any suggestions, on some welcoming places for an old Chicago Prog Rock kind of guy such as me, would be most interested in the input. I have posted on a couple of Czech social media sites, and also have a few folks familiar with Prague trying to get me a few leads. However, would prefer to have many options for next July. Again, thanks for your reply.

Orv

There are lots of public pianos all over the city, as part of the Piana Na Ulice, or Pianos in the Street Project. You'll find them on the plaza behind Narodni Divadlo, the old station building in Hlavni Nadrazi, the steps of the Charles University at Namesti Jana Palacha and on the square at Namesti Miru. You can find a map of the pianos here.

Please do post here before you get to Prague to let me know which pianos you're planning to hit up. I would love to hear you play.

Marcus,

Yours was the kind of post I was hoping to see. I have seen the pianos in the street web site, but it was all in Czech, and looked like it was from 2013. So wasn't sure whether this was still going on in Prague. Do you know if most of these public pianos are in pretty good shape tune wise? As this will be my 1st trip to Prague, I do want to play as much as possible.
Orv

If anyone on this forum has a listing of where these instruments Marcus mentions above are located, in English, so I can use google maps to find them please do post. I found the link to the map quite English unfriendly, with the exception of café Neustadt. Thanks

Hi orv.

On that website at the top right there is "CZ". If you tap it it will display "EN" and you should see pretty much everything in English. The 2013 reference I see on the site pages is regarding when the piano installations started.

On the Contact tab an email is shown, and an inquiry there would likely give you what you are looking for. On the People tab at the bottom there is a Facebook link which opens as Cafe Nuestadt and seems to be mostly English. You could maybe post there. Also on the People tab there are several phone numbers and as all of the Contacts are younger people (based on the site photos) they likely speak English. I'm 100% positive you would find what you are looking for if you made voice contact. You will have to determine the time difference between wherever you are and Prague if you will be telephoning them.

Good luck. Let us know how it works out for you.

I am back in Prague at the end of March , will have a look at the locations and report back

Peter,

Thanks for your reply. I must be dense, cause I looked at he map and had changed to EN and still could not decipher. I will look at the café Neustadt FB page again and post a msg what I am looking for, but it seemed that most if not all of their posts are in Czech.

UncleGus,

If you would be as so kind to either post a list of the available pianos close to the Old Town area, or PM me when you return from Prague in March, I would be most grateful. This looks like a golden opportunity for me to play in Prague, outdoors for lots of random folks, which is really what I am looking for on this trip, as well as all the other touristy things on my 1st trip to Prague. Thanks much to all of you that have responded to my post. Your efforts and time is very much appreciated.

will do , not sure exactly what I will be doing but can make time to check out a few places

I changed the map to English and you are correct, the labels for the individual pinned location are in Czech. If you copy and paste the label information into Google Translate it might help, but I still think you will need to have some email or voice communication with them to get the level of detail you need as to specific dates and locations for the piano installations.

In addition to making some arrangements in advance, you might also find that you could just show up where a street musician is playing and ask to play a few tunes using their gear. We have seen electronic keyboards set up in the front of the Municipal House and through the Old Town square in the past. This would be a great way to connect with the local artists.

Peter

Orv, I hope I am looking at the same map and will try to translate it for you:
Piano Sestak - pianino on platform Sestak, open every day 8:00 - 22:00
Jizni Mesto (South City) piano, Central Park
Heroldovy Sady (Orchards) - piano, in the fenced part of Heroldovy Sady, available when park is open
Motol Piano, Hospital Motol, building of Hospital Headquarters
Letiste, in English Airport
Bohnice V. kolona - Fifth Column. Bohnice is a neighborhood and also huge Psychiatric Hospital
Cerny Most (Black Bridge) piano Cerny Most is a neighborhood and terminus of Metro line B (yellow line)
Hlavni nadrazi piano (Main Train Station) at Fanta Cafe, you can get key at cafe Coffie Day
Novomestska radnice (New Town Hall) Courtyard
Karlovo namesti (Charles Square) piano at Jecna Street, in front of Church St.Ignac
Piazzetta Narodni Divadlo at New Scene (or Stage) Building
If I missed something you want to translate, send it to me. When asking locals how to get there, write the name of piano place down because you would probably mispronounce it.

the Fanta café is in the newly restored old booking hall of the main train station as far as I am aware. it is a lovely location and easy to find ( correct me if I am wrong folks). worth visiting the place anyway never mind playing piano there.if you go out the door at that level onto platform one head right and you will see the statue/memorial to Sir Nicolas Winton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Winton) another little cameo moment in your Prague trip.

There's a good doc on the life of Sir Nicholas Winton, Nicky's Family. A giant of a man.

http://www.nickysfamily.com/

Thanks to all for all of your input !