Open Piano For Refugees

Everyone is welcome to play. Everyone is welcome to listen. 

Our goal is to bring people from all walks of life together by placing freely accessible grand pianos in public spaces. Places of encounter emerge where language and words become unnecessary. The project aims to enhance the social participation of refugees and strengthens the social bond in society as a whole. 

A musical instrument becomes an instrument of integration. 

We coordinate buildup and dismantling, weather protection, permits, piano transport, continuous supervision and playing of the pianos, as well as the organization of concerts at the locations. Generated donations are invested in our social school DoReMi.

Doremi – The Social Music SCHOOL

In December 2016, we started teaching piano to almost 20 refugees in Vienna for free in the “Piano School for Refugees”, as it was called at the time. Refugees should be able to play on the Open Pianos and soon take care of the Open Piano locations to earn some pocket money. Lessons at the MZW – ‘Musisches Zentrum Wien’ were a success and inspiration for more to come. The big motivation of all people people involved and therefore the potential of the project was undeniable.

As a result in 2018 we founded “DoReMi – the social music school”.

Here we offer music classes in pair lessons for refugees and socially disadvantaged people paired up with people being socioeconomically more fortunate and mostly German-speaking. Sustainable integration and appreciation of cultural diversity are promoted through an innovative “Pay as much as you can” concept while enjoying music classes together. Some refugees / migrants and socially disadvantaged people are also teachers of oriental instruments, in addition to the classes of piano, guitar, singing, an integrative choir and other instruments we offer. At the moment, we are proud of being able to teach around 180 students (the majority of them refugees and socially disadvantaged people with and without a migration background).

Concert Facilitation

Are you still looking for the right live or background music for an event? 

Economic integration is a crucial part in order to fully participate in a society. Besides the possibilities of being teacher at our music institute and taking care of our open piano locations we try to provide refugee musicians with concert opportunities. Thereby we enable them to use their creative potential for a fee and to take further steps towards successful integration. We offer passionate and experienced concert musicians on many instruments. So in case you need the right music and atmosphere for your event and want to support a good cause, we might be what you are looking for. Contact us.