Piano Days Festival

Piano Days Festival: The Piano Celebrated in Niort

The Piano Days Festival was born in 2025 from an initiative by the Niort-based association Sonatime, passionate about promoting live music. As part of the international Piano Day movement — founded in 2015 by German-Icelandic composer and pianist Nils Frahm to celebrate the piano on the 88th day of the year, in homage to the instrument's 88 keys —, the festival offers a series of concerts dedicated to the piano every late March in emblematic venues in Niort and the Deux-Sèvres.

From its very first edition in 2025, Piano Days established a strong artistic identity: a piano festival that transcends the boundaries between classical music, contemporary music, and experimental creation. Pianist Melaine Dalibert inaugurated the festival with a hypnotic reinterpretation of Keith Jarrett's mythical Köln Concert, laying the groundwork for a demanding and inventive program.

Concerts in Exceptional Venues

One of the unique aspects of the Piano Days Festival lies in its choice of concert venues. Le Camji, Niort's contemporary music venue, offers intimate acoustics and capacity ideal for piano recitals. The Château d'Oiron, a Renaissance gem located in the north of Deux-Sèvres and owned by the Centre des monuments nationaux, hosts some concerts in an exceptional heritage setting, creating a striking dialogue between contemporary music and historical architecture.

A Program Between Tradition and Avant-Garde

The Piano Days Festival cultivates a subtle balance between major international performers and artists at the crossroads of genres. The program encompasses classical and romantic repertoire as well as contemporary creations, improvisations, and electroacoustic performances, offering the public a panoramic and vibrant vision of piano art in the 21st century.

A Festival on the Rise

Although recent, the Piano Days Festival has quickly found its audience thanks to the quality of its programming and the originality of its positioning. By appealing to both discerning music lovers and the curious, it contributes to enriching the cultural offerings of Niort and the Deux-Sèvres in classical and contemporary music.