Toy Piano Festival
The UC San Diego Library’s popular signature event — now in its 16th year — features two performances, the first at Geisel Library on September 2 and the second a collaboration with the San Diego Public Library at the Central Library in the Neil Morgan Auditorium on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. The events include new scores for the toy piano, including the premiere of “Toy Piano Suite 16” and “Labor Day Lullabies.” This year’s festival will include jazzy new works by Sue Palmer, the Queen of Boogie-Woogie, and other new toy piano scores by composers Ryoko Amadee Goguen, Linda Kernohan, Samara Rice, and Scott Paulson featuring performers Andrea Wingen, Kenneth Herman, and others.
Since 2000, the UC San Diego Library has hosted the Toy Piano Festival every September to pay homage to the September 5 birthday of John Cage, the first composer to write a “serious” work for toy pianos. In May of 2001, the Library of Congress issued a subject heading and call number for toy piano scores at the request of the Geisel Library. The call number is: M 175 T69.
The toy piano collection at Geisel Library consists of commissioned scores, literature, recordings, and actual toy pianos ranging from four-note novelty keyboards to three-octave baby-baby grands. A selection of toy piano scores and instruments will be on stage at UC San Diego’s Geisel Library and at the San Diego Public Library events. Info: 858-822-5758 or [email protected].