Outdoor piano brings music downtown in Virginia community

CULPEPER, Va. (AP) — Where do pianos go when they aren’t wanted anymore?

One place now is Culpeper, which has started a program—Culpeper Keys—of positioning donated pianos outdoors around town, so anyone in the community can tickle some music out of the old ivories, day or night.

On Monday, Culpeper’s first such piano was unveiled in a ceremony beside the town’s train depot and Visitors Center, which will be the colorfully decorated piano’s new home.

In early 2020, area high-school art students competed for the chance to paint the piano in a contest devised by the town Department of Economic Development and Tourism, partnering with Culpeper County Public Schools and art teacher Marla Bell.

Jordan Wilson, then a senior at Culpeper County High School, created the winning design that appears on the public piano.

“It’s been a year since Jordan began her work and today, in celebration of National Travel and Tourism Week, we are thrilled to present this beautiful Culpeper Keys piano to Culpeper,” Tourism & Economic Development Director Paige Read said on Monday during the piano’s unveiling.

Brittany Bache, a Culpeper piano instructor and accompanist with the Blue Ridge Chorale of Culpeper, then sat at the keyboard and demonstrated what the cast-off piano was capable of.

Selecting a classical piece called “Behold the Lamb,” Bache sent trill after trill into the air, pressing nearly every key—ebony and ivory both. The arrangement by Dino Kartsonakis, composed by Dottie Rambo, musters an impressive array of chords and melodies that delighted listeners.

“This piano will live here at the Visitor Center year-round, spending the warmer months outside and the winter months indoors,” Read said.

Read is patterning the new program after those in such places as Lancaster,...