Pianists are playing in the key of G, for “grateful.”

They’ll strike that note, among others, in a benefit concert Sunday to help complete the purchase of a new Yamaha grand piano at the Bainbridge Commons.

The instrument was delivered this week, after an 18-month drive by a group calling itself the Piano Fund Committee.

“For a while, there, I felt like I was really alone in this,” committee head Darden Burns said. “But I kept thinking, this is important. The project was based on my vision, something I needed to do for the community.”

Burns said it was generally agreed in the Bainbridge music community that the island needed “a good piano in an intimate, affordable setting.”

Burns found support from other piano teachers, including Mary Foster Grant and Peggy Swingle, and the drive was launched in 2001.

Jim Rynearson, the parent of two of Burns’ students, took on the project last spring when Burns’ energy was flagging.

Rynearson called music stores around Puget Sound, and found a “nearly new” Yamaha that had just arrived at the store. The year-old instrument had been played in a studio by a piano professor.

“That was good news,” Burns said, “because it meant the instrument was ‘played-in.’”

Newly manufactured pianos tend to be “too stiff,” she said.

Burns, who had tried out various instruments in the area, went to Bellevue and “auditioned” the Yamaha last spring. She liked what she heard, and so did Grant and Swingle.

The $28,000 instrument, which will be owned by the city for insurance purposes, was delivered to the Commons by Washburn Music of Bellevue, after down-payment of $11,000 was made.

That gives the piano committee one year, interest-free, to raise the balance of $17,000.

“I was aiming for a piano in this price range,” Burns said. “I wanted a quality instrument.”

The financial arrangement with Washburn is not unusual, she said, and is typical of how many institutions purchase an instrument.

But the balance must be received within 12 months, or the piano goes back to Bellevue.

And that would be too bad, Burns said, because the Yamaha has many potential users on the island, from vocal groups to Bainbridge Music and Arts auditions.

“And I see this not just being used by students,” Burns said. “I can see jazz being played on the piano and cabaret being played.”

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The Bainbridge Commons’ new Yamaha grand piano will be featured a debut concert and recital at 4 p.m. Oct. 13. Scheduled performers include James Quitslund, Mary Foster-Grant, Julia Leach, Theo Carson, Donna Horning and soprano Sharon Acton.

Admission is by donation to the Bainbridge Commons Piano Fund. For more information, call 842-3380.