Tim Minchin auctions his Airport Piano for Art of Music charity

The one-of-a-kind instrument will soon be up for grabs at the Art of Music charity fundraiser on July 17, with the proceeds going to music therapy providers Noro.

Singer, songwriter and composer Tim Minchin with his one-of-a-kind ‘Airport Piano’, which will be auctioned for the Art of Music charity fundraiser on Saturday July 17 at the Art Gallery of NSW. Picture: Jane Dempster

Halfway through a two-week home quarantine last September, Tim Minchin opened a garage door in Perth to greet a new arrival: a brand new black Yamaha U1 piano.

Before long, he was revving up an orbital sander to strip back the $12,000 instrument, paint it white, then hand-write lyrics on the surface in blue pen, all for a music video to his song Airport Piano. For the singer-songwriter and his family members – who had flown over to WA from Sydney to be with Minchin’s mum, following her cancer diagnosis – the unusual project was a welcome distraction from an otherwise trying time.

“It’s a perfect example of how, on the surface, a bunch of shitty circumstances can create something that’s really positive,” he told The Australian.

“You list those factors: how would you fancy being in a pandemic with a sick family member and having to isolate? You’d go, ‘That sounds all shit’, and there’s no way you could conceive of a positive outcome.”

Minchin’s predisposition to making lemonade from lemons foresaw an additional outcome: he realised that once the cameras had been switched off and the video editing was complete, the renovated piano should be sold off for charity.

“At some point we went, ‘Hold on – we might be able to get $20,000 or $30,000 out of this if we can find the right buyer’,” he said.

The one-of-a-kind instrument will soon be auctioned at the Art of Music charity fundraiser on Saturday July 17 at the Art Gallery of NSW, with the proceeds going to music therapy providers Noro.

Tim Minchin with his one-of-a-kind piano. Picture: Jane Dempster

The white Yamaha has been hidden away since Minchin played it during a global streamed concert around the release of his debut studio album, Apart Together, in November last year.

Earlier this week, it was wheeled out from a storage facility in Sydney’s inner south for a photo shoot with The Australian.

Minchin will soon hit the road on his rescheduled tour of Australia and New Zealand, which resumes on June 12 in Adelaide; the next time he sees the painted instrument will be next month.

“It’s a nice piano, and I’ll get to play it at this fundraiser, miked up and in concert mode,” he said.

“Presumably, if I know myself, on the night I’ll have a couple of wines. When the bidding slows down, I’ll say to the auctioneer, ‘Tell them I’ll come and play it in their house one evening,’ trying to get the price up a bit. But that might be the last time I ever play it.”