News / Health
Hospital grand piano installed at Southmead
The soothing sound of live piano music will be drifting around the new multi-million-pound Southmead Hospital after a new grand piano was installed.
Patients at the state-of-the-art hospital will now be able to enjoy harmonious chords echoing in the atrium of the main building of the hospital where the new Steck Boudoir piano has been placed.
The £430 million hospital which opened last year bought the piano using funds from the £2,400 sale of an 1890 oil painting by Henry William. The painting of a French landscape was put in storage after the old Southmead hospital building was demolished.
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It was originally donated to Winford Hospital in North Somerset by Sir Lionel Goodenough Taylor, chairman and treasurer of the hospital, and was later acquired by North Bristol NHS Trust.
Ruth Sidgwick, fresh arts manager at North Bristol NHS said: “We are thrilled that the sale raised so much and that we did not have to do any other fundraising for the piano, which will add a real sense of atmosphere to the hospital.”
“Live music is a great vehicle for patients to be transported beyond the hospital, helping them to relax and to enhance their well-being.”
There is also a space for art exhibitions inside the main atrium with regular displays in the Brunel building, opposite the sanctuary.
The hospital is now looking for volunteer pianists interested in playing the piano. For more details contact Ruth on 0117 4143759.