Street piano

A street piano in the Luxembourg Garden, Paris.

A street piano is a piano placed in the street which passersby are encouraged to play. The best known example comes from the Play Me, I'm Yours project by artist Luke Jerram. The concept originated quite by accident in Sheffield, England.

The Street Piano in Sheffield

The Sheffield Street Piano

In Sheffield, The Street Piano was a piano on the pavement on Sharrow Vale Road. It was originally left outside temporarily because the owner could not get it up the steps into his new house. As a social experiment the owner and a friend then attached a sign inviting passersby to play the piano for free. This offer was taken up by a great many people and the piano became a part of the local community. It survived for over a year, including being stolen and subsequently replaced by a newer model (with several volunteers willing to provide a new one).

The original street piano in Sheffield belonged to a family from Middlesbrough for decades before moving, with the daughter of the family, ending up in Sheffield. The original piano stool and music book holder did not make it on to Sharrow Vale Rd, parting company after many happy years together.

The piano became the centre of a local campaign once the council decided it constituted an abandoned item, and the campaign to save it spread quickly to local news outlets, with several articles on Indymedia. As of July 2006 a spokesman said in an interview for the National BBC Radio 4 that the piano was no longer under threat of removal. However, it was eventually removed in 2008 because of weather damage.

Play Me, I'm Yours

A Play Me, I'm Yours piano being played near London's Millennium Bridge

Artist Luke Jerram installs street pianos in various cities. The project is intended to challenge the prohibition of playing music in public places without special arrangement. It prompts members of the public to use the piano, regardless of skill and popularity. Typically, a musician would have been stopped from playing outside the City of London and Sing London festival.. When the project got to Boston in 2013, over 1000 pianos will have been installed in 38 cities.

Birmingham

In 2007, Jerram installed 15 street pianos throughout Birmingham, United Kingdom, for the public to play. In just three weeks, 140,000 people across the city played, listened and connected with one another.

Jerram said "Questioning the rules and ownership of public space 'Play Me I'm yours' is a provocation, inviting the public to engage with, activate and take ownership of their urban environment."

São Paulo

Thirteen pianos have been installed in São Paulo.^[1] Luke Jerram reported that many of those who stopped at the pianos had never played a real piano or even seen one.^[1]

Toronto

"Play Me, I'm Yours" started in Toronto in the summer of 2012. 41 pianos have been placed around the downtown core of Toronto in celebration of the 2015 Pan American Games which will be held in the city of Toronto.^[2]

Sydney

Thirty street pianos were set up across Sydney for the Sydney Festival 2009. A website was set up for the public to upload and share their films, photographs and stories of the pianos being played.

London

In June and July 2009, thirty Play Me, I'm Yours-painted pianos were installed across London for members of the public to play. The painting on each piano was chosen to suit its location.^[3] The project was produced by Sing London and City of London Festival^[3] at a cost of £14,000.^[4] A music license had to be obtained for the location of each piano.^[4]

Bristol

The artwork was presented again with Fifteen street pianos being located in and around Bristol in September 2009.^[5]

Barcelona

Play Me, I'm Yours arrived in Barcelona when twenty-three street pianos were located across the city in March 2010.^[6]

New York

Play Me, I'm Yours, presented in New York City, brought sixty pianos to the center of commercial Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island. The pianos were placed at strategic locations throughout the five boroughs. For the two-week duration of 21 June through 5 July 2010, the pianos featured formal and impromptu concerts by students, tourists, children, nannies, lawyers, doctors, merchants, and artists in an open festival of music involving all elements of New York's culturally diverse population.^[7]

Cincinnati

Play Me, I'm Yours brought 35 pianos to Greater Cincinnati starting on 9 August 2010 with a kickoff event at Fountain Square, downtown. The pianos will be donated to arts centers and children in need after the project ends on 17 September. The project was brought to Cincinnati by Cincinnati Public Radio to celebrate the 50th anniversary of WGUC, the 40th anniversary of WVXU and the 60th anniversary of WMUB.^[8]

Grand Rapids

Mr. Jerram also entered Play Me I'm Yours in the 2010 Artprize competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Despite the entry's popularity, it failed to make the final round, finishing in the Top 25.^[9]

Tilburg

The largest "Play Me, I'm Yours" project, with 101 pianos, took place 11 September through 18 September 2011, as part of the Incubate festival in Tilburg, The Netherlands.^[10]

Other cities since 2011

Adelaide (Australia), Austin (USA), Boston (USA), Cambridge (UK), Cleveland (USA), Geneva (Switzerland), Hangzhou (China), London (UK), Los Angeles (USA), Malta, Mesa (USA), Monterey (USA), Munich (Germany), Omaha (USA), Paris (France), Perth (Australia), Prague (Czech Republic), Salem (USA), Salt Lake City (USA), Stratford (Canada),Toowoomba (Australia)

The Public Piano Project in Joshua Tree California

The Public Piano Project in Joshua Tree California began as a public grand piano Valentine Gift to the community in 1995 as the Self Serve Serenade by artist Piano Bob (aka Bob Fenger). In 2002 Piano Bob began a donated piano consolidation project building a weather proof outdoor piano from the parts of 3 pianos and installed April 2004 in front of Joshua Tree Health Foods. It was enjoyed by thousands of Joshua Tree National Park Visitors and locals for nearly 2 years and was reinstalled 20 April 2012 at the Coyote Corner Gift Shop in Joshua Tree as the first Public Prepared Piano.^[11] The piano is reminiscent of a Gamelan Orchestra prepared with everyday items such as coins, screws, paper mutes, wedged into the strings in a typical John Cage manner(inventor of the prepared piano in the 1940s also see Bob Fenger's Acoustisizer at Prepared piano 2.10). The Public Prepared Piano is the third phase of the Public Piano Project dedication to unknown closet pianists, art in public places, and instant drum circle fun around a keyboard. Through regular tuning and maintenance of the public pianos another opportunity presented itself for the public to observe, learn and interact with the total Public Piano Project experience. Questions like:how long does it stay in tune outside? The short answer: the colder the better the more in tune. The fact that Joshua Tree is in the High Desert above Palm Springs with many 100 degree plus days in the summer gave numerous opportunities for tuning, sharing and exchanging ideas. The artist's stated intention:^[12] 'The Public Piano Project creates momentary beauty thoughts and ideas that resonate out across fields, parking lots and sidewalks. It invites others to play along and gives way to song and laughter, accidental bonding and new friends; even possibly an ephemeral center of insight and change'. On 21 December 2012 Piano Bob launched his fourth phase of the Public Piano Project with the Prepared and Unprepared dueling pianos for peace at the Joshua Tree Hospice.^[13] Public Piano Locations^[14] Public Piano Tour Pictures 2007.^{[15][16][17][18]}

Piano des villes, piano des champs in Montreal

In 2012, the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough in Montreal installed two public pianos; Patrick Watson inaugurated the season by being the first to play on one of them while artist and compositor Victor Simon played on the second.^[19] In 2013, following the success of the first season, the borough installed two more pianos and lent one to the Pointe-à-Callière Museum for a total of five public pianos, inaugurated by five different artists, Socalled, Yann Perreau, Louise-Andrée Baril, Alex Nevsky, Fanny Bloom and François Bourassa.^[20] In 2013, the idea has expanded to Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, that installed one public piano.^[21] All those pianos will be left available to the public until the end of September.

References

External links

Media related to Street pianos at Wikimedia Commons