The Southernmost Piano In The World







Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province


Tierra del Fuego, map


Ushuaia along the Beagle Channel
The southernmost (grand) piano in the world is located at Ushuaia, the capital of the Argentinian Tierra del Fuego province (full name: Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province).
    .....in the even more southern (Chilean) city Puerto Williams (between 2000 - 5000 residents) there is no piano; I checked.
On the way to Antarctica where Maarten Regtien promoted his electronic composition South ° The Ernest Shackleton Endurance Expedition (1914-1917), a stopover of several days in Ushuaia was part of the travel arrangement.

Contact was made with the municipality of Ushuaia as soon as the travel and stay over dates were definitive. Unfortunately all available days already were booked months in advance, and even after extra personal on the spot negotiations in the Casa de la Cultura (Regtien speaks Spanish fluently) regretfully - also for the Casa de la Cultura management - no time slot could be made available.

As a consolation price however, Regtien was given the opportunity to play the piano for some fifteen minutes, and with a professional recording device always at hand a recording was made of a free improvisation. The ~1990 Kawai piano, though out of tune, was very playable.

        

So on the 9th of February 2018 Maarten Regtien became the first pianist in the world having both played on the northernmost AND southernmost piano!

The Ushaia 2018-02-09 recording is available on YouTube