Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Manhattanites Invited to Tickle the Ivories on City Streets, as 60 Pianos Arrive

By Julie Shapiro | June 22, 2010 1:10pm | Updated on June 22, 2010 1:49pm

By Julie Shapiro

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

COLUMBUS CIRCLE — Sixty pianos appeared in parks and on street corners across the city Monday morning, inviting people to play them.

Luke Jerram, 35, dreamed up the public art project several years ago as a way to unite people through a common appreciation of music. Since then, the “Play Me, I’m Yours” piano installation has traveled from London to Sidney, but this is the first time it has landed in America.

Shortly after the brightly painted pianos — provided by the organization Sing for Hope — arrived Monday morning, they found plenty of musicians and amateurs eager to play. In Columbus Circle, a crowd of tourists and local workers gathered around a blue, yellow and green piano early for an eclectic free concert in the early afternoon.

“This is amazing,” said Jennifer Lee Snowden, 25, a singer/songwriter who listened and then played briefly in Columbus Circle. “It’s bringing music to everybody — and it’s getting people out of their iPods.”

Jerram said New York City was unlike any other piano installation he has done. He put twice as many pianos here as he has anywhere else, and the city required him to lock the pianos shut between 10 p.m. and 9 a.m. because of the city’s noise codes.

Each piano has a volunteer caretaker to lock it up at night and drape a cover when it rains.

The pianos will be in place until July 5, when they will be donated to local schools and nonprofits.