Haiti Piano Project has the ambition of offering an opportunity to promote the creativity of Haitians and their love for music, enhance their capacity and to facilitate the movement of artists to and promote initiatives at an international level. We strongly support the conviction that Culture is the key to human and social development.
Francesco Bandarin, Deputy Director General for Culture, UNESCO
“If there are no more grand pianos… I will bring one!”
Célimène Daudet
Artistic Director of the Haiti Piano Project
“What is more natural for the pianist I am than to go meet the people and a country that is also mine by sharing what is most dear to me: music and its expressive power.
When this idea came to me, the concept of giving a concert in Haïti seemed difficult, if not impossible, because there are no grand pianos in Haïti. The conclusion was simple, but striking. No piano. No concert.
The Haitian people lack everything, eaten by misery. The Haiti Piano Project aims to provide hope for the people of Haiti by providing beauty, culture, art, and music.
I believe in the power of music, its convening power, soothing, window to the dream, springboard to the imagination, music that carries joy, excitement and hope.
Nourished by these convictions and the will to make a piano heard again by all in Haïti, a crazy idea never left me: “if there are no more grand pianos, I will bring one!”.”
Thus was born the Haiti Piano Project, supported by the association,
“Raconte-moi un piano”.
The project was born from a fact: there are no pianos to perform a classical music concert for Haitians in Haiti. Haiti Piano Project wants to help change this situation.
The purchase and delivery of a grand piano to Jacmel, a city of welcoming, tourism and culture, is a necessary first step in this project’s life.
Creating the first international piano festival in Haiti will open up an exciting world with a rich repertoire. It will encourage the gathering and sharing of music.
The artistic program of the festival, proposed by the pianist Célimène Daudet, will highlight the diversity of creation around the piano. It will provide original and accessible approaches to sharing diversity.
Haiti Piano Project also aims to contribute to the development of arts and cultural education projects in connection with local creation.
At the heart of local creation
Haïti Piano Project, registered with UNESCO, is involved with the city’s development program by promoting its living heritage by investing in several places of the city closest to the public: the convention center, the public square, churches, and other unusual places in Jacmel.
The arrival of a concert piano in Jacmel will be a symbolic moment that will actively participate in the city’s new development, and also assist in promoting local talent.
Creating the first piano festival in Haiti will open up an exciting world with a rich repertoire. It will encourage the gathering and sharing of music.
The artistic program of the festival, proposed by the pianist Célimène Daudet, will highlight the diversity of creation around the piano. It will provide original and accessible approaches to sharing diversity.
Haiti Piano Project also aims to contribute to the development of arts and cultural education projects in connection with local creation.
Culture, key element to human and social development
Francesco Bandarin
Deputy Director General for Culture, UNESCO
“Heritage, creativity, artistic expressions, music, are now at the heart of sustainable development strategies from Agenda 2030 adopted by the UN in 2015 and the New Urban Agenda adopted by the World Conference on urban development – HABITAT III – in 2016. As a factor of social cohesion and human enrichment, culture can also become a part of economic development and recovery of traditions and local know-how.
Haiti Piano Project is in full compliance with the campaign that UNESCO has supported for decades, for the protection and enhancement of the tangible and intangible heritage of societies in all regions of the world. Haiti is in this sense, a special challenge. The country has great cultural potential, which derives from its history and the expressive richness of its people. This cultural wealth has always been a major asset to overcome great hardship which the country has faced in its history and may now represent a strategic element of stimulus.
Haiti Piano Project has the ambition of offering an opportunity to promote the creativity of Haitians and their love for music, enhance their capacity and to facilitate the movement of artists to and promote initiatives at an international level. We strongly support the conviction that Culture is the key to human and social development.”