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Manx Newscast

Second public piano installed in memory of young musician

Duration:
5m
Broadcast on:
28 Jun 2024
Audio Format:
mp3

You may remember us talking about Cody Atzori in the past here on Manx Radio.

A bright musical talent, he died suddenly a couple of years ago, aged just 17.

Last year, a public piano was installed in his memory at the Sea Terminal, and now, with the help of charity SoundCheck Isle of Man, his family have installed a second.

This one is at the new Roundhouse facility in Braddan.

It's to be officially unveiled this weekend, but our Siobhán Fletcher went along for a sneak peek, and caught up with Cody's sister Hebe, who painted the instrument, and his mum, Liz.

We are down at the Roundhouse and there's a new addition this weekend in that there is the second piano on the island in tribute to Kodiak's Zori. I'm here with a sister Hebe, who painted it. Can you tell me a little bit about what went into the inspiration for this one? The one down at the sea terminal sort of looks like mountains and almost like waves in the sea. This is more of a space theme, I guess. Do you want to tell me a little bit about it? Similar to Tails inspiration where it's meant to be like a dreamy, surreal place. I went with the space theme, I guess, because Kodi really loved anything to do with the universe and planets and a lot of his song lyrics. Poetry was about the universe and the quote that's on the piano says "Your world is glowing, can you see it" and I just wanted to be really glowy and colourful and vibrant. And all the different animals like the sharks and whales and the secretures are all animals that he loved as a kid, so it's very codified. Yeah, totally. And they're kind of floating through space. It's like this sort of dreamscape, isn't it? Imagine and then flying through. And the colours for anyone listening, the sort of purples and pinks and yellows. So, yeah, sort of taking inspiration then from obviously everything you knew about Kodi and its music and its art. Yeah, yeah, pretty much I wanted it to be something that he would enjoy and I wanted it to be similar to the other piano, but also have its own identity as well. And Meantayo actually swapped, so he did the backdrop and I did the piano this time, whereas in the theatre when it was the other way around when he did the piano and I did the backdrop. So, it's been nice to work with him on it as well as like a sibling project. I'm going to say it's totally a family affair because this is kind of like the sea terminal again where you guys bought the piano, you've done it up or it's through sound check the charity as well. You've done it up, you know, this is like not an outside company doing this. This is totally you and your siblings and your mom and dad doing a proper tribute to Kodi and what I love saying to your mom as well. You've got the little Kodi again on the keys there in his pose. Is it nice to almost have that as well, like a little bit of Kodi on there as well? Yeah, I think this quite symbol of him with the arms up has almost become like a logo for Kodi's piano and this picture is actually taken up the sound and its sound check, which is like a weird coincidence, like I don't know. I just thought about it the other day that it kind of connects. And so it's officially launching on Saturday morning. At sea terminal we had such a turnout, it was amazing, hoping for similar this time around. I hope so. I'm not really sure. I'm not really sure how many people will come. We've got like a Facebook event and Instagram that we've been trying to, you know, grab an interest. So yeah, hopefully. And we'll hear a little bit of Kodi's music on the day as well. His piano teacher will be playing Wispicity, anyone who's listened to Max Radio, will have heard Wispicity before. That's got to be nice as well, the official launch and then you hear a bit of Kodi as well. Yeah, yeah, you'll hear his song and then anyone else that wants to play cancer, hopefully some musicians want to come down and have a go. It would be good to see some talent. I'm at the piano here with Liz, Kodi's mum. This is the second piano to be installed on the Alaman. There's one down at sea terminal, which people will see, coming on and off the boat. This is the second one. What's it like to sort of be able to have another one installed? Well, it was quite a big surprise for us actually to be asked to do a second one and we've been really, really pleased and we hope it will be just as successful as the first and was well received. We just love spent spreading Kodi's message of playing music and happiness in music and music for well-being. Me and him, he were just chatting about how cool it would be if we had loads of Kodi's pianos all around the Alaman. Would you love to see that kind of a little piano on every little corner of the island? Sure would, yeah, we would love that. We'd love a series of Kodi's pianos the more we can share him and spread his message and everybody can get to know him and his music. We always want him to be remembered in the best light and this is the best way, this is what he'd like. It's always a family affair really. The one at the sea terminal is painted by Teo. This one's painted by Hebe, got the sign up. What's that like as well? You're all kind of in it together. It's hard work. We, Paolo and I, prepped it, we sanded it back and primed it and Hebe designed it obviously and then we set to work together to do the undercoats and then obviously Hebe was the one who hand painted it and Teo spent time creating the mural. It's lovely to have a family project of Kodi right at the heart of it so that we're all talking about him and reminiscing. For most of the time it's a lot of joy, a lot of banter and it's just all about Kodi, that's all we want. Perfect and hopefully we'll have a big turnout on Saturday. Rival in the sea terminal I reckon, let's hope for that. Hopefully I don't know if we can rival the sea terminal. I was so impressed by how many people that came. It was so well supported and we really appreciate the Roundhouse hosting the event again and keeping the piano here so fingers crossed lots of people come and enjoy the music. [MUSIC] Thank you for making it to the end of the Manx Radio Newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. 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