ECU launches major piano restoration program
May 7, 2025 - Piano Industry Magazine
📷 Stewart Symonds hands over the 1786 First Fleet piano to Professor Geoffrey Lancaster at WAAPA’s Roundhouse Theatre. Credit: Sharon Smith/WA News.
Edith Cowan University (ECU) is striking a powerful chord in the world of historical music preservation, thanks to a groundbreaking partnership with two of Western Australia’s most esteemed philanthropic foundations. In a three-year initiative backed by generous funding from The Wright Burt Foundation and The Feilman Foundation, ECU will embark on an ambitious project to restore, conserve, and reinvigorate one of the world’s most extraordinary collections of historic pianos.
A Three-Year Revival of Rare Instruments
The funding will support a dynamic program that goes far beyond basic restoration. It includes advanced research, hands-on conservation, and high-level performance initiatives. Two new scholarships will be introduced: one for a student specialising in historical piano performance, and another for training a specialist in piano restoration, ensuring that the next generation carries this legacy forward.
Crucially, ECU is combining international expertise with local excellence. In addition to collaboration with renowned European restorers, the university is partnering with master artisan Patrick Elms of Albany - widely regarded as Australia’s foremost restorer of late-Romantic German pianos.
A Future Built on Heritage
This initiative arrives as ECU prepares for its next chapter: the opening of its state-of-the-art City campus in 2026. The new facility will feature a dedicated exhibition and performance space designed to showcase the crown jewels of the collection, positioning WAAPA as a global hub for historical keyboard education, performance, and innovation.
One of the World's Finest Collections
WAAPA’s reputation as a leader in music education took a major leap forward in 2016 with the acquisition of the Stewart Symonds Keyboard Instrument Collection - an internationally acclaimed archive of rare instruments. This was followed in 2020 by the generous donation of additional historic pianos from David Forward of Adelaide.
Today, ECU holds more than 160 historic keyboard instruments, including harpsichords, spinets, and pianofortes from as early as the 18th century. Among them is the legendary ‘First Fleet Piano’, believed to be the first piano ever brought to Australia, arriving in 1788.
This extraordinary collection offers an unmatched glimpse into the evolution of keyboard instruments, solidifying WAAPA’s role as a beacon of research, preservation, and performance in the field of historical music.
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