Russian pianist plays music in landfill site in campaign against pollution

Getting the grand piano to the landfill was a challenge.

Pianist Pavel Andreev has staged a recital on a St Petersburg landfill site to draw attention to the country's waste problem. Source: Instagram

St Petersburg musician Pavel Andreev staged an unusual performance to draw attention to the problem of global pollution.

For a project called 'Breath of the Planet', the venue of the traditional concert hall was replaced with a landfill site in Russia's northern Leningrad region.

Mr Andreev spent six hours at the site surrounded by the stench of tonnes of garbage and cries of thousands of seagulls.

In a video clip posted on social media, Andreev played his own composition against the backdrop.

Andreev told Reuters said the idea for the project came to him while he played a grand piano on a drifting platform on a lake at Russia's famous Ruskeala natural park.

The grand piano is positioned for the performance. Source: Instagram

"I wanted speak about the beauty of nature from the opposite side," Andreev told Reuters.

He said he hopes to raise awareness of the use of garbage as a resource that could be transformed into clean energy or other recyclable materials.

Garbage disposal has become a widely discussed topic in Russia last year as the stench of landfills in the Moscow region caused continuous protests among the locals.