San Francisco Botanical Garden celebrates 10th year of Flower Piano

This anniversary celebration combines elements of music, nature and community.

Greek pianist Elektra Schmidt plays her final tune on the piano on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. (Paul Singh / Golden Gate Xpress)

Once a year in Golden Gate Park, the San Francisco Botanical Garden hosts Flower Piano, an event where pianos are scattered across the garden with pianists performing at designated spots. Founded by Dean Mermel and Mauro Ffortissimo, Flower Piano 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the event.

From 10 a.m. to noon, pianos are open for guests to play until pianists take over at noon and play until 7 p.m. On Friday, Flower Piano’s opening day, Larry Pascua played “My Little Sunshine” by the garden’s entrance, and a crowd gathered around the piano to sing along with him.

“It’s basically just getting the community together, just really have appreciation for art and beauty and nature all entwined together because we are very blessed and lucky that San Francisco Botanical Garden opened it to us musicians,” Pascua said. “If you really look at it …. a piano is in the living room and as Dean would say, ‘When you put it into nature, it gives it that extra element.’”

A crowd gathers to hear the Golden Gate Symphony Orchestra at Golden Gate Park on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. (Paul Singh / Golden Gate Xpress)

Stephanie Linder, CEO of Gardens of Golden Gate Park, runs the nonprofit partner to the city to operate the gardens. According to Linder, $600,000 was raised for the event to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the San Francisco Botanical Garden. Flower Piano started back in 2015 to celebrate the 75th anniversary.

Linder said their partners at Sunset Piano, Mermel and Ffortissimo, provide the pianos. The pianos are donated and in some cases, are refurbished, and placed throughout the 55 acres of the garden.

Linder finds Flower Piano an important part of keeping the park’s relationship to music alive.

“Music in Golden Gate Park is a long-standing tradition,” Linder said. “Golden Gate Park’s been around for 155 years, and since its very beginnings, there’s been music in the park.”

Many came out for the performances, like Erik Ian Walker, who played a couple of songs on the piano.

“I know a number of the people that are performing like Allison Lovejoy. Eric Shifrin would be a great person to catch,” Walker said. “Every year here, it’s cool and fun. Kids come out. All kinds of folks are out here. That’s what’s really cool.”

Elektra Schmidt, a pianist who came to San Francisco from Greece, performed with a cellist for a large crowd, drawing raucous applause from the crowd. Schmidt said they did a medly of duos and trios for piano, violin and cello, with cellist James Jeffe.

Audience members enjoying the music played by Greek pianist Elektra Schmidt and cellist James Jaffe on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. (Paul Singh / Golden Gate Xpress)

Jaffe has been playing since he was 9 years old, after growing up in a family filled with musicians. He said he thought Flower Piano was an interesting experience.

“It’s always a different, unique situation when you’re playing outside because we’re kind of used to sending our sound out into a room,” Jaffe said. “But you get all these benefits of playing out in a garden with these beautiful fragrances… We were hoping that the music we chose would be complemented by seeing these beautiful flowers.”

On Friday, Calito Franco y su Túmbao Añejo, a band that specializes in cumbia and merengue music, performed a cover of Carlos Santana’s “Evil Ways” and other songs.

Calito Franco, the bass player and lead singer of the band, said he appreciated when members of the crowd danced to their music.

“That’s inspiring because for musicians, whether it’s one person or 10 people dancing, that always takes it to the next level of performers,” Franco said. “Dancing, it’s just part of feeding food into the musicians.”

Longtime couple Mike and Debbie Bowen, the latter of whom is a San Francisco State University 1974 alum, decided to check out the event after seeing it on Facebook and CBS News Sunday Morning.

“The setting is just gorgeous, and I love this arboretum,” Bowen said. “I’ve been here over the years many times and really thought that this would lend itself well to this event, and we haven’t been disappointed.”

Phil Ginsburg gives a speech before the Montuno Swing Salsa Band begins to perform at the lounge at the San Francisco Botanical Garden on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. (Paul Singh / Golden Gate Xpress)

Phil Ginsburg, the general manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, said this garden and anniversary event are perfect examples of what San Francisco represents.

“We’re here in San Francisco’s botanical garden, which is 55 acres of one of the most important plant collections anywhere, and the idea is to combine nature, music and community,” Ginsburg said. “And it feeds into what the mayor said — this is a city that celebrates its culture, that celebrates its natural beauty and that brings people together. That’s exactly what you see.”