Polls are open for our 2026 Best of the Bay! Vote here now, and enjoy our Editors’ Picks of our favorite Bay Area things, which we’ll be posting throughout the month.
Forget the stuffy concert hall: If I were a grand piano, I’d definitely want to be planted in the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park during September. At Flower Piano, from September 10-20, more than 130 top Bay Area professional musicians would tickle my ivories in front of thousands of exuberant music fans. Better yet—other than during the annual alfresco festival’s special scheduled performances—people of all ages, races, backgrounds, and significantly varied levels of achievement at the keyboard would plop down on my bench and have at it.
Returning for 11 days this year, the festival’s 11th, 12 pianos spread across 55-acres continue a fine, democratic tradition established by co-founders Mauro ffortissimo and Dean Mermell in 2015. From regular folks to the most refined chamber groups, soloists, bands, and ensembles, folks gathering around a piano offer a rare moment of pubic unity held in community. Surrounded by the sights, sounds, and scents of nature, which add their own harmonic tones, it’s impossible to think of a more liberating, egalitarian experience.
Tickets to Flower Piano are included in general admission to the Botanical Gardens. Entry is free to San Francisco residents with proof of residency. A Flower Piano Lounge ticket or 3-day All-Access pass provides priority entry and seating, special performances, and access to premium bars and food from local purveyors.
It goes almost without saying that the roster of professional artists scheduled to perform is overwhelming. Consider, among many others, pianist Van-Anh Nguyen, the Cahill-Myers Duo, Irina Omelchenko, La Gente SF, Kev Choice Chamber Ensemble, Hadley McCarroll, Soprano Jou-Lu Hung with Pianist Sumi Lee, Eric Chase, Joshua Grayson, and Classical Revolution Piano Trio.
Within that handful, there is music from Rachmaninoff, Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Prokofiev and other grand masters, along with prepared piano, opera, French art songs, Boogie Woogie, jazz, rock n’ roll, show tunes, Caribbean, Latino, and Reggaeton music, and original compositions.
During the 11 days that summer drifts into fall, sweep the calendar clean, pack a picnic, and join every grand piano’s sweet dream.
