Turning The Public Into Performers With 'Street Pianos'
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Heard on All Things Considered
June 23, 2010
MICHELE NORRIS, host: Well, you don't need a record-breaking low note to take part in this
next music story. New York City is kicking off a new participatory art project. It's called the
Street Pianos Project. For two weeks, 60 pianos will be on the streets of New York for anyone to
play. NPR's Margot Adler reports.
MARGOT ADLER: There they are, a bunch of somewhat dinky-looking upright pianos painted
by artists in all kinds of odd colors, sitting in parks, on sidewalks and on street corners.
Sometimes, the pianos just sit there. Some people are a bit shy. Daniella Audut puts her fingers
on the keys.
(Soundbite of piano)
Ms. DANIELLA AUDUT: Yeah, that's about it. I took music lessons back in, like, second grade,
and I forgot everything.
ADLER: Another person says he's classically trained, but he needs his sheet music. But then
there are people who completely lose themselves, like Nina Pike, a 20-year-old visitor from
Virginia, who sits down in the middle of Times Square.
(Soundbite of piano)
ADLER: Are you improvising?
Ms. NINA PIKE: Yes, yeah, just out of my head.
ADLER: That's wonderful.
(Soundbite of music)
ADLER: Do you daydream while you improvise?
Ms. PIKE: Yeah, to play the songs I play, you have to put up a picture and make the music flow
to what the picture made up.
ADLER: The Street Pianos Project was conceived by British artist Luke Jerram, who says he had
the idea when visiting a laundromat in Bristol, where he lives.
Mr. LUKE JERRAM (Artist): I was noticing I'd see the same people there every weekend, washing
their underwear and just sitting there with a newspaper and iPods, you know, and no one was
sort of talking with one another. And I realized there must be all these invisible communities
right across the city, people occupying the same space, and they'd recognize each other, you
know, maybe at the train station or the bus station, but they wouldn't engage with one another.
And I thought, well, maybe putting a piano into a space like that would shake things up and
would act as a catalyst for conversation, and so far, it seems to be working.
ADLER: Jerram has placed pianos in nine cities, including London, Sydney and Barcelona. New
York is the first U.S. city and the largest installation he has done. Jerram says he's a visual artist,
and he doesn't read music, although he can play some simple blues.
(Soundbite of piano)
Mr. JERRAM: It turns ordinary people like me into street performers, and that's magical.
ADLER: He's been moving from piano to piano, watching what happens.
Mr. JERRAM: Yesterday I saw at the Lincoln Center an old lady playing the piano. She was
playing Honky Tonk Blues. I thought that was pretty good. And then some Japanese students
sort of sat up, and they wanted to have a go, but I don't think she was impressed by the amount
of talent they had. So she started giving them piano lessons.
ADLER: High school student Kari Wei brought her voice, as well as her fingers, to one of the
pianos at Lincoln Center.
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. KARI WEI (Student): (Singing) Where is your heart because? I don't really feel you. Where is
your heart? What I really want is to believe you.
Ms. WEI: I've always, you know, sort of had the urge to whenever I see a piano play it. So the
fact that they have them all over the city is just really convenient. So, I mean, I'm kind of
determined to sort of find all 60.
ADLER: Sometimes whole bands show up, like Danny Lipton.
(Soundbite of music)
DANNY LIPTON (Music Group): (Singing) And it's hard to say just how some things never
change, and it's hard to find any stretch to draw the line because I'm just burning, doin’ the
neutron dance. I'm just burning, doin’ the neutron dance.
ADLER: At the end of the two weeks, the pianos will be given to schools and hospitals by the
nonprofit Sing for Hope in the hope that playing and building community will continue.
ADLER: Margot Adler, NPR News, New York.
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