How Pianos for People is helping give the gift of music to others with free pianos.

By Sharon Knolle

The power of music is undeniable and the organization Pianos for People is making music more accessible to those with limited resources.

Jeanne and her late husband Tom Townsend started Pianos for People nine years ago in St. Louis, the non-profit has given out more than 300 pianos to people who would otherwise never be able to afford one. It’s been life-changing for several recipients, including teen prodigy Royce Martin, who’s now studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston thanks to the program.

Pianos for People now has two free piano schools, one in St. Louis, and one in Ferguson, Missouri, and both are beginning to re-open after the COVID shutdown.

Recently,  St. Louis Community leaders and philanthropists Jeanne and Tom Townsend were awarded with the Caucus’ Humanitarian Award, followed by a special performance by Pianos for People student prodigy Royce Martin who is now in his third year of studies at Berklee College of Music, Boston. He has collaborated with musician Jon Batiste and most recently contributed to the score of the “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” reboot.

Royce Martin performance for the 38^th Annual Caucus Awards

The Voluntourist: How did you come up with the idea for Pianos for People?

Jeanne Townsend: My son Alex passed away in a car accident in 2009 when he was an art student. We created the Alex Townsend Foundation and a few projects spun off of that, including Pianos for People. My husband Tom was a very serious jazz piano player in his spare time and my son also played the piano. So Tom came up with the idea of creating an
organization to give unused pianos to lower-income people, people who wouldn’t otherwise have a piano.

The Voluntourist: When did you start the first music school?

Jeanne Townsend: After a year or two, we discovered it would be really great if we could add a lessons component. We opened our piano school in 2014, so each of the recipients of the piano could take lessons and learn how to play. That’s how it all started.

The Voluntourist: How many pianos have you given out since you started?

Jeanne Townsend: It’s about 300 now and served thousands of students at this point. We have two schools, one in Ferguson, Missouri and one in South St. Louis. Both of those schools have been closed during COVID, but are opening back up again. We did online lessons [during the lockdown] and that worked really well, too.

The Voluntourist: How did you get involved with the program, Royce? Did they come to you or did you go to them?

Royce Martin: I was playing a Casio 76 keyboard, which is really just a toy. I played that until it broke in October of 2015. And then discouraged Royce looked up “piano donations” online and Pianos for People is the first thing that popped up. I filled out an essay as if I was my mom to get the piano, but I figured out that the application that I sent in wasn’t even the one that got me the piano. I went to an arts high school, so my orchestra teacher had taken some interest in me
and realized I didn’t have a real acoustic instrument at home, so he filled out an application for Pianos for People on my behalf. February 20, 2016 is when I got the piano donated to my house from them. It was my first acoustic piano, so it was pretty exciting. And I got to practice on it a lot.

The Voluntourist: How has Pianos for People changed your life?

Royce Martin: My life has changed a lot since I was 16 [and I first got the piano]. I won this competition back home in St. Louis. Once I won the competition and got some publicity, I realized it was something I could possibly do for the rest of my life. In 2017, I got accepted into Berklee, where I’m studying composition. I want to get into composing and film scoring.

The Voluntourist: What else did you gain from the program, besides learning to play the piano?

Royce Martin: Amy Seibert was my first piano teacher. Before then, I was just playing piano by learning it off of YouTube videos. She was the nicest lady. It was piano lessons, but also almost like a therapy session. It just felt like a place to belong in the most clichéd way. I had never been able to talk on a personal level hours on end like that and have someone so interested in having me achieve something. That was what kept drawing me back to Pianos for People. It always felt like, beyond the piano, they were really interested in my personal life and helping me succeed. They would come pick me up from my house 30 minutes away and give me a free lesson and then take me back. Then I ended up going to piano camp in the summer of 2017 because they vouched for me at Pianos for People. The people I met, I can’t express it enough. Amy taught me how to drive. She would take me to the rural side of St. Louis County, where I’m from, and we would do driving lessons. She had this dedication to my success. And it wasn’t just her.

The Voluntourist: You’re an ambassador for them now. So maybe you’re helping another 16-year-old say to themselves, “Hey, I can do that too.”

Royce Martin: Yeah, that is almost precisely what I hope. When I was 16, I was really impressionable and looking for a community. I think a lot of people have similar experiences, especially young boys. Especially young black boys. I think it’s important for them to find that community. It was that sense of community that kept my head on straight and gave me
something to look forward to.

The Voluntourist: Tell me more about your staff and what kinds of things you do for your students, beyond the pianos and the lessons.

Jeanne Townsend: What we found is that the schools became much more than a piano school. They became community centers of sorts. We would get involved with the kids on a much more holistic basis than just teaching them piano. Each year, we had coat drives to make sure the kids had winter coats. In the summer, we have piano camps and we feed them
breakfast and lunch because often these kids aren’t getting the nutrition they need. When they needed rides, we would give them rides. When they needed clothes for a concert or a recital, we made sure they had the right clothes. We’ve helped kids go on AFS trips to Europe and South America. And we’ve helped kids with expenses once they leave us and go to college. We get to know the kids really well and their families. And the piano school on any given Saturday becomes a real place for the kids to be safe and their parents sometimes hang out there. They’ve formed parent groups. The holistic approach is a huge part of what we do.

The Voluntourist: How do you decide who to give the pianos to? On your site, you have thank you notes from children as young as 5. What’s your criteria?

Jeanne Townsend: If you can prove a certain income level and that your child or you are interested in pursuing the piano — because we do teach adults as well — we will give you a piano. My husband Tom was very interested in saving unwanted pianos and getting them in as many households as he could. He grew up in a household that had a piano and it changed his
life. And he firmly believed in the power of music to change lives and to heal. You don’t necessarily have to be a student of Pianos for People to receive a piano. For example, there was a person who was a Gulf War veteran who had PTSD. He applied for a piano, but he already knew how to play. We got him a piano and he played beautifully on it. He would send us videos. I remember one thank you letter we got one letter from an elderly man whose wife had died. He had played piano as a young man and he wanted to try doing that again, so we got him a piano. He sent us this lovely thank you note about how it was helping him in his grief process. All levels are people have applied, from kids to elderly people. We’ve also provided a lot of pianos to churches and nursing homes.

The Voluntourist: How can people help or volunteer for Pianos for People?

Jeanne Townsend: They can go on our website and call. We’ll gladly take your call and give you a volunteer opportunity if you’d like to help out. All of our teachers are paid, but we have had volunteers help out at the summer camps or work on our music library, or work on the garden outside. We do need and love volunteer help. We also give our older students the opportunity to volunteer or do something on a paid basis. Some of our older students help out with the summer camps. Our littlest kids start out in group lessons, so sometimes we have older students help out with the group lessons.

The Voluntourist: How has Pianos for People changed your life, Jeanne?

Jeanne Townsend: I think when my husband first came up with this idea, I didn’t quite understand it. And when it turned into what it’s turned into, it all became very clear to me how important this was to our community and how much good we were doing. He passed away in 2019 pretty suddenly and I just can’t thank him enough for his vision in coming up with this.
Most of the people who worked there over the years and people who’ve come into our locations, have called it “the happiest place in St. Louis.” It’s just a magical place. Because you can see the good that we’re doing on a daily basis is just palpable. You can see it in the kids’ faces and how much they open up over the course of a few months and the confidence they gain from going on stage and getting applause. You can just see these kids blossoming and it’s just so incredibly fulfilling. It’s also been a hugely important thing for our whole family. Now, with my husband gone, the fact that I and my two children can carry on his legacy has been such a gift. From the time we lost our son, he was very convinced that music has a great power to heal. And he’s absolutely right. I’ve seen it over and over and over again.

The Voluntourist: It must be so rewarding to see someone thrive like Royce, who now has a music education and potentially a career because of Pianos for the People.

Jeanne Townsend: Royce is probably the one who has gone on to study music in the most serious way. But not everyone we serve has to be a great musician. Tom firmly believed that everybody should have some sort of interaction with music and some opportunity to play. Whether they’re great talents or mediocre or not so good, they will all derive some benefit from it. So we celebrate our mediocre students as well as students like royce. Our program builds
confidence and self-esteem and things they can carry over into other aspects of their life. We love serving all levels of talent.