The Ultimate Guide to the Toy Piano Scene

Last week I played on a wonderfully resonant Jaymar toy piano in Chan Ka Nin's one-act opera Ice Time for Tapestry New Opera's Opera To Go. On opening night, I had the pleasure of meeting Elisha Denburg, a member of Toronto's Toy Piano Composers, who subsequently got me connected with the thriving community of toy piano composers and performers on Facebook and the web. What follows are some useful links about the instruments, composers, collectors, and performers who are creating an ever-increasing body of work for these enigmatic instruments. Note: some of these links require either a Google or Facebook ID - you'll find this noted in parentheses. I'll be adding stuff to this post as new information comes to light...

[Update: a huge thanks goes to Xenia Pestova for the time she spent compiling corrections and link info!]
[Update: thanks also go to Wendy Mae Chambers and Liz Parker for contacting me about adding further links.]

Information, Collections, and Manufacturers

• Toy Piano Wikipedia entry - This is a useful place to start with a lot of information about the origin of the modern instrument, its characteristics, and appearances in modern performance and culture.
• Schoenhut Toy Pianos - Shoenhut is the pre-eminent maker of toy pianos.
• Miniature Piano Museum Toy Pianos Collection - Photos of a fair number of toy pianos from the Miniature Piano Museum.
• Toypiano.org - A site dedicated to the promotion of the toy piano as a musical instrument.
• Miniature Piano Enthusiast Club - Some interesting information and photos from Janice Kelsh's collection.
• Wearable toy piano - Just be sure you don't electrocute yourself mid-phrase.

Communities

• Toy Piano Performers on Facebook - This looks like the community to watch in the next while, with a rapidly expanding corpus of photos, recordings, videos, and event listings (Facebook ID required).
• Toy Piano Composers on Facebook - (FB ID req'd)
• Toy Piano Time - A Google discussion group about all things toy piano (Google ID req'd). 
• TOY MUSIC / MUSIC FOR TOYS / MUSIQUE A JOUETS - Also on Facebook (FB ID req'd).
• Contemporary Keyboard Society - A blog devoted to numerous extended keyboard projects, including toy piano events.
• Toy-Box Trio - Dana Wen on toy piano is joined by Harlan Glotzer (concertina) and Nate Lee (tuba).

Performers, Composers and Ensembles

• Margaret Leng Tan - a toy pianist whose work elevated the instrument to a vehicle for serious composition.
• The Toy Piano Composers - a Toronto-based collective of composers that specializes in creating works for toy piano. The Toy Piano Composers consist of Dan Brophy, Monica Clorey, Igor Correia, Elisha Denburg, Glenn James, Nancy Tam, Chris Thornborrow, Fiona Ryan, and Christian Floisand.
• Isabel Ettenauer - an Austria-based toy pianist.
• Eiko Sudoh's YouTube channel - lots of works for piano and toy piano here.
• Phyllis Chen - pianist, toy pianist, multimedia artist.
• Wendy Mae Chambers - toy pianist and composer
• Elaine Lau - Toronto-based pianist and toy pianist.
• junctQin - Toronto-based toy piano trio (junctQin also has a MySpace page)
• Twink: The Toy Piano Band - cool music featuring toy pianos - you can listen to samples of Twink's uber-cute music here.
• Toy Piano Performers - a photo collection on Facebook (FB ID req'd)
• Karlheinz Essl - Composer of many works for toy piano.
• David Smooke - Baltimore-based composer of many works for toy piano.
• Stephanie Chua - Toronto-based pianist and toy pianist.
• Chapi Chapo et les petites musiques de pluie - check out this site for lots of music, events, and videos by Chapi Chapo.

Works and Performances

• No No Nonette - a MIDI-controlled work for 9 toy pianos.
• Kun, 64 Toy Pianos at the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, 2009 - a project of Wendy Mae Chambers in collaboration with Schoenhut Toy Company.
• Three Pieces for Prepared Toy Piano by Steve Layton, 1981 - (MP3 file)
• Toy Pianos (plus) - a blog post by Miguel Frasconi with an audio recording of a recent work and a video of his keyboard collection.
• SMILE (HQ) - a trailer for a recent Toy Piano Composers recital. (FB ID req'd)

A search for "toy piano" on YouTube will yield lots of fascinating performances (too many to post here) but below are some particularly fascinating ones...

Clio Montey's Barcarolle played by Xenia Pestova:

Isabel Ettenauer performs Kalimba by Karlheinz Essl:

Eiko Sudoh plays John Cage's Suite for Toy Piano:



Phyllis Chen performs her composition Double Helix for toy piano and bowls:



If you have any more notable toy piano links, events, or stuff, leave a comment or send me an email at collaborativepiano [at] gmail dot com.