Overlooking the Khardung La mountains, a very special piano performance took place.
Davide Locatelli (Italy), a professional pianist and musician, played several piano pieces to break the record for the highest altitude grand piano performance.
This piano performance took place at 5,375 metres (17,634 ft) above sea level on 29 June 2023.
His feat beat the previous record of 5,325.77 m (17,473 ft) achieved by Thurzó Zoltán (Romania), at the Mount Everest South Base Camp, Nepal, on 13 June 2022.
Khardung La, located in India, is the name of a mountain pass in Ladakh that goes to Khardung village from Leh.
The top of the pass, where the attempt took place, is considered as one of the highest motorable roads.
Davide started to play piano when he was just three years old, his father was also a pianist and his first teacher. He later studied classical piano and composition at Mantua in Italy and New York.
For the attempt, Davide played five of his own original songs: "Fly Away", "Sugarland", "Experience", "Hyper Silent" and "Love 4", the last track, being a brand new song.
@guinnessworldrecords Highest altitude grand piano performance 🎹🏔️ 5375 m (17,634.5 ft) by Davide Locatelli 🇮🇹 at Khardung La, Ladakh, India 🇮🇳 #piano#pianist#mountain#composer#guinnessworldrecords @davelocatelli ♬ original sound - Guinness World Records
Davide decided to play this composition as a tribute to his career and to perfectly encapsulate his musical career up until this point.
In his own words, "Love 4" was something he wanted to play to "communicate hope towards the future".
Davide’s piano, a Yamaha C5, was brought to the location from New Delhi via a small truck, and he had been planning his attempt single-handedly for six months.
Performing at a high peak is no easy feat, due to the cold weather conditions at -10 °C (14 °F) and breathing difficulties.
However, Davide was undeterred and continued playing his piano pieces to finish his official attempt.
"It was very difficult because it was too cold, an incredible wind, more than once I was about to stop playing from the frost. The fortitude and the will not to disappoint those who supported me in this enterprise prevailed and we did it. It was beautiful, one of the best moments of my life!" - Davide
As per Guinness World Records guidelines, the piano performance had to last for at least 15 minutes and the instrument had to be reviewed by an independent specialist witness to state that it was working properly and tuned correctly.
Davide played the piano for 16 minutes, which he recalls as "the longest 16 minutes of my life".
The attempt was witnessed by a tuner of the piano and an engineer from local government.
After Davide’s piano performance came to an end, official adjudicator Swapnil Dangarikar was on hand to present him with his certificate.
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