In their heart of hearts, all musical instruments are inherently playthings. They have the potential to stimulate childlike wonderment within their adult users, and they allow the senses of actual children to run wild alongside timbre, tempos and tones basically pulled out of thin air.
Toy pianos are extra special.
By definition they are, in fact, playthings, scaled down to miniature from their upright and grand cousins. Four octaves is a luxury in toy piano land (full-scale models hit seven octaves), you have to kneel or sit cross-legged to play them, and the sounds they emit have more of a humble, hollow quality rather than that concert hall-filling bellow you might hear from a big Steinway. Still, there’s something enchanting in the way that a toy piano twinkles when its keys are struck. And despite its size, the toy piano’s influence on the history of composition looms large across every genre of music.
You can hear it on Radiohead’s “Kid A,” Seals and Crofts’“Summer Breeze” or Tom Waits’Blood Money LP. The Cure brought one out for an MTV Unplugged performance of “Just Like Heaven” and fans of the newspaper funnies might remember a little virtuoso named Schroder playing the shit out of a toy piano in Charles Schultz’Peanuts. In the mid-20th century, the late composer John Cage even gave the plaything some avant-garde credibility with “Suite For Toy Piano.”
The toy piano is virtually everywhere and this weekend, it takes center stage at the first ever Florida International Toy Piano Festival (FITPF), which is spread across five venues over three days. Organizers from the nonprofit New Music Conflagration hope to further the creation and performance of works for the instrument through a series of lectures, panels, concerts and outreach events featuring performers from around the globe.
“I have a fondness for the secondary and tertiary harmonics that do so much for the character of a seemingly singular pitch.” That’s festival co-founder Elizabeth A. Baker. She is a 27-year-old born-and-raised St. Petersburg resident, and while her job as a concert pianist lands her in big fancy digs, she finds the most exciting audiences to be the ones that don’t have a relationship with symphonic concert halls.
In her short, year-long relationship with the toy piano, she’s become an official artist for Schoenhut (perhaps the most recognizable name in toy piano manufacturing), toured the country as a soloist and as part of various ensembles, and even participated in a three-and-a-half hour sound installation at the Carter Woodson Museum of African American History. The instrument has changed her already rich musical life.
“I think the toy piano just appeared and filled a musical void that I didn’t know existed in my heart,” she explained. “In founding The New Music Conflagration, Inc. we sought and continue to seek to have concerts of modern works across a wide array of venues, in an attempt to reach out to a varied group of demographics.”
She’ll get just that at FITPF’s finale performance, dubbed Cogs & Keys, on Sunday at Mixed Field Arts Ybor. The space held its first show in March and is revitalizing the southern end of Ybor, which could pan out to be the gateway connecting Channelside with the more industrial parts of the historic district.
“With every event we hold, one of our main focuses is how we can introduce MF Arts to a new niche. Community is an inclusive concept, and with a wide scope there’s always an opportunity to grow ours,” Alyssa Hernandez told CL. The 24-year-old, who co-founded the space with Joanna Williams, is excited to work with Baker in merging visual arts — including that of St. Pete muralist Sebastian Coolidge — with C&G’s musical performers, who’ll be marrying traditional toy piano sounds with electronic elements, totem harp, and even plastorgan (a DIY wind harp made from plastic bottles).
“There’s going to be a lot changing and moving throughout the space,” Baker said, “so the audience will always be on their toes.”
Over three dozen compositions will be tackled over the weekend, and while some will feel familiar (experimental saxophonist Jamison Williams tackles selections from the Disney songbook on Saturday) other works like Anthony T. Marasco’s “Mid-Century Marfa” might be intimidating to toy piano virgins. The key to absorbing everything to its fullest, according to Baker, is to expect the unexpected.
She and her small yet mightily determined festival staff of four have worked with supportive venue owners to ensure that the FITPF lives up to its potential to elevate the cultural (and economic) clout of the area. She’ll be leaning heavily on volunteers to help run the show. “We can always use more,” she said when asked about helping hands and sponsors.
“Everyone involved in the festival has a very different performing and composing relationship with the instrument,” she said, adding that her and FITPF co-founder Robert Fleitz “specifically programmed the concerts and events to give audiences a taste for the vast possibilities that this little instrument has to offer.”
Most of the programs are free to attend (Cogs & Keys, Toyeurism and Jamison’s Disney experiment have a $10 admission fee), so access shouldn’t be a problem, even for the most cash-strapped of curious music fans. The opportunity to watch world class composers interact with an instrument that requires a high level of sensitivity and finesse in such intimate environments is a rare and priceless treat, and those with open minds, eyes and ears stand to gain the most out of FITPF.
“Toy Piano is a very whimsical instrument,” said Baker. “The toy piano community has been one of the most open and genuine music groups that I’ve encountered in my professional career.”
The Florida International Toy Piano Festival happens Fri.-Sat., Jan. 8-10, at various locations around Tampa Bay. Full schedule below. Additional info at thenewmusicconflagration.org. FRIDAY, JANUARY 8
On Toy Piano A lecture by Italian musicologist, author, and toy piano expert Antonietta Loffredo. 4 p.m., St. Petersburg Main Library, 3745 Ninth Ave. N., St. Petersburg, free.
Toyeurism in Concert Pianist-composer duo Robert Fleitz and Elizabeth A. Baker premiere works for toy pianos with live electronics. 8 p.m., The Space at 2106 Main (2106 W. Main St.), Tampa, $10.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 9
Performer Forum Alexa Dexa, Antonietta Loffredo, HyeKyung Lee, Mark Robson, Robert Fleitz, and Elizabeth A. Baker discuss various practices and considerations regarding toy piano as a concert instrument. 10:30 a.m., Jimmie B. Keel Regional Public Library, 2902 W. Bearss Ave., Tampa, free.
Composer Forum Aaron Rosenberg, Monica Pearce, Olivia Kieffer, Rob Smith and Anthony Marasco examine individual creative processes employed when composing new contemporary concert works with toy piano. Noon, Jimmie B. Keel Regional Public Library, free.
Sounds from Distant Lands Concert & Artist Talk Visiting composers and performers Aaron Rosenberg, Drew & Lindsey Dolan, HyeKyung Lee, Alexa Dexa, H. M. Mease and Michael Tan stage compositions for toy piano in various configurations, then preside over a post-concert talk. 3 p.m., Barbara S. Ponce Library, Pinellas Park, $5 suggested donation.
Deconstructed Disney Experimental/improvisational interpretations of material from the Disney Songbook by Jamison Williams & Toyeurism. 8 p.m., The Space at 2106 Main, $10.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 10
Robert Fleitz Solo Concert Fleitz juggles toy piano, melodic and electronics in a program of new works that explore the inherent theatricality of toy instruments. 2 p.m., St. Petersburg Main Library, $5 suggested donation.
Closing Reception3:30 p.m., St. Petersburg Main Library, free.
Cogs & Keys An evening of performances by visiting toy pianists (Mark Robson, from L.A., NYC-based Alexa Dexa and Atlanta’s Amy O’Dell) and locally-brewed talent (Mechanical Bull, Suitcases of Sound, LS/CM/DR and Taxer), as well as a display of toy piano-themed artworks (Alexander Richard Infanti Glueck, Naomi Glueck, Nikita Campbell) and painted toy pianos (James Oleson and Sebastian Coolidge). 8 p.m., MF Arts Ybor, 1616 E. Second Ave., Ybor City, $10.