Vroni Holzmann, Middle Meadow Walk - ‘Channel 4 called me’
“It all started in 1999. I wanted to join the Fringe, so I put a piano out on the street, on the Royal Mile. And now I go on tours all over Europe, but I always come back to the Fringe. I always want to be a part of it. I’ve had this piano since 2000, so next year we will have been together for 25 years. It was made in 1937 by a company called Steingraeber, in Bayreuth in Germany. Amazingly, that company still exists. I was there this year, and they did some work on it for me. It’s an amazing story.
I’m in Edinburgh most of the year. I live here. But I do other forms of art like photography, cartoons, I’m a classical composer, I write poetry and all sorts of different things.”
Which of those art forms is the most important to you?
“All of them! I’m just creative, and when I start doing something that is the most important at the time. The piano started taking over a lot recently because Channel 4 called me and asked, ‘Can you play for us?’ And then I had to really concentrate on that. It was for a program they ran called The Piano with Claudia Winkleman. It’s a really nice program where they are just inviting pianists to play pianos in public spaces. I was filmed playing in a train station.
But the bit I am missing is the commercial side. I am good at art and being out on the streets, but as for the whole commercial side … I can’t make money, not really; I’m just rubbish at it. I just want to bring my art to the people. But I think if you are in this position, then what you have to do is just ignore the money, be poor and just do the art. Because if you think about it a lot it just distracts you. It would be nice to have an agent, but I’m still waiting for that call.”