PIANOS ARE OUR PASSION!

Loaningdale’s pianos were all sourced by James Cameron, the President of Biggar Arts, the charity that operates Arts at Loaninngdale. James is perhaps best known as the proprietor of the Edinburgh Piano Company, in its heyday Scotland’s pre-eminent piano dealership, the first port of call not only for private individuals looking for good domestic pianos but also for major concert halls whose performers expected the best pianos available. By the time he retired in 2016, James had supplied pianos for concerts by musical stars such as Luciano Pavarotti, Lang Lang, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, and Van Morrison. Closer to home, Evelyn Glennie, Benjamin Grosvenor, Nicola Benedetti, and countless others all benefitted from his Aladdin’s Cave of pianos. On retirement, James’s pianos were dispersed in a vast piano auction, but he kept in reserve a few for future use. It is these pianos—two magnificent Steinway and Bösendorfer concert grands, as well as a smaller, beautifully restored period Steinway dating from 1874—that are at the heart of Arts at Loaningdale.