Dear all, 

We need a new piano. Soon. 

 If you’re reading this, it probably means you have been to Barbès -  a performance space located in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which has been programming all kinds of music for the past eleven years. 

You might have also noticed the shiny black upright piano, which sits in our backroom. Few rooms our size have a good working acoustic piano, but in order to do the kind of programming we love, we’ve always felt that an acoustic piano was a necessity. 

 A few years back, a very reputable German company contacted us and offered to give us a brand new piano. No strings attached (and no pun intended). This was a great opportunity as it enabled us to start booking more piano-centric music – including our Upright Piano Brigade series which showcased some great new talent in the classical world. We were thrilled to take it and gave our old piano to a school in Pennsylvania. 

Well, it seems that the afore-not-mentioned company has changed its mind. They have decided to withdraw all of their pianos from North America – including ours. Within a few weeks, we will no longer have a piano.

An acoustic piano is essential to our programming. A number of artists play Barbès specifically because they do not have to bring a digital piano when the music they wrote is meant to be played on an acoustic piano.

So now we need a new piano.

 It looks like we have found a reasonably priced one – a fine instrument for our space, but we have to come up with about $4000 to pay for the piano, the move and the initial upkeep. 

Unfortunately, over the past few years, Barbès has accumulated a debt which we can’t seem to be able to pay off and which prevents us from making any improvements. We simply can’t afford the extra money. Really. 

This is why we turn to you. Some of you might find it distasteful, and maybe it is – but we believe that having to use a digital keyboard instead of piano would be even more distasteful. 

So please help us support the kind of programming we’ve been doing for the past eleven years, and donate what you can. 

We have some rewards and incentives:  Recorded music in the form of albums released by Barbès records. 

You can browse the site and listen to some of the music we are offering at www.barbesrecords.com . 

Most of the artists have performed in our backroom at one point or another. If you already own one of the CDs and would rather get a different reward, we would absolutely be willing to give you a different title. Just get in touch.

Of course, we believe that the greatest reward of all will be the ability to keep listening to live piano…

Many thanks, and hopefully, see you at Barbes.