The Sapphnetic Piano introduces Sapphnetics, a practice exploring the soft interplay of electromagnetic fields and acoustic string activation, brought for the first time to my home instrument.

A Sapphnetic glove interacts with neodymium magnets placed as piano preparations. Brought near a ferrous object, it sets the strings resonating, and the sound is picked up by the glove and fed back into the piano, turning the instrument into its own speaker. The smallest gestures can produce expansive sounds, or the intimate textures usually heard only by the pianist.

Inspired by feminist theories of virtuosity, the practice deconstructs pianistic mastery and values sensitivity, minimal gesture and collaboration with indeterminate systems: an antidote to traditional notions of instrumental mastery.

Premiered at UNIT 44, Dublin (June 2024), with a performance at the Pianodrome supported by the Leeds International Piano Competition. Recorded at Phipps Hall, University of Huddersfield.