Auckland pianist kicked off public piano at Britomart train station

• Auckland pianist Jon Christie was stopped from playing a public piano at Britomart train station.
• Christie shared the encounter on social media, highlighting the need for support for young musicians.
• Auckland Transport apologised, stating anyone is allowed to play the public piano.

An Auckland pianist who was told he could not play a public piano at a downtown train station says there needs to be more support for young musicians.

Jon Christie, 29, shared video of the awkward encounter he had with an Auckland Transport (AT) worker earlier this week when his attempts to perform for the public at Britomart train station were cut short.

Christie sat down to play around 2pm on Tuesday inside the entrance hall of the busy transport hub, entertaining travellers with his own arrangement of Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey.

But his performance was cut off within minutes by the arrival of an AT worker in a high-vis vest, telling him he needed to stop because the station was at “peak hour”.

AT has since apologised.

An Auckland Transport worker told Christie to stop playing. Photo / @jonchristie

The video shows Christie politely stopping, but the musician later posted a video of the encounter to his social media accounts and said he was “so sick” of not being able to play.

“Why install a public piano if you don’t want people to play it?” he asked.

Christie told the Herald he understood AT preferred that people would not play during rush hour in case it distracted from live announcements inside the station, but he believed his 2pm performance should have been allowed.

He said he had previously played the instrument, and whether he was allowed to play seemed arbitrary and up to the individual staffers working.

Christie alleged he had been asked to stop in the past by the worker in the video and knew the game was up when the man started staring at him as he tickled the ivories.

Auckland musician Jon Christie, who often performs for free using public pianos.

Christie, who has played the piano since he was a young child, said he had played at many public pianos and knew how to match his playing to the time and venue and become “background noise” if necessary.

He said he did not ask for tips and instead just played for the love of it after returning to the instrument as a young man.

Christie said he was classically trained as a child but pressure from his family killed his love for the music, and he only returned to it later as a respite from stress.

He said he was speaking up because he did not want the experience to happen to another musician, particularly someone younger who might have their confidence knocked by being told to stop.

He also pointed out the piano is an expensive instrument to get into and keyboards are not always an easy alternative to cart around, so public pianos offer young pianists an opportunity to test their skills on a live audience.

“I’ve heard stories where people will stop playing completely,” Christie said.

“Because maybe that’s the one time they finally left the house and played with someone in public, and then they get that response.

“It would crush people.”

The video of the encounter Christie shared on social media quickly racked up tens of thousands of views.

Most respondents were supportive of Christie, an attitude which he says some AT workers have previously shared – including one who joined him to sing an accompaniment to his playing at Britomart.

“It’s not about what you play, it’s about the community and about coming together. It’s a big part of the public piano,” he said.

“That’s the whole point of it, is to bring people together.”

A note left by an audience member at another of Christie's public performances.

An AT representative replied to Christie’s video to apologise and a spokesperson today confirmed to the Herald that Jon was welcome back to play.

“When our team at Auckland Transport saw Jon’s video we quickly got in touch with Auckland One Rail (AOR) - the company that runs Auckland’s train network and manages Waitematā Station (Britomart) on AT’s behalf,” the spokesperson said.

“AOR promptly confirmed Jon shouldn’t have been asked to stop playing and that their teams receive great feedback from customers and businesses at the station when people do play the piano.

“AOR then reminded all of their staff working at Waitematā station that members of the public are allowed to play the piano.”