The Sing For Hope Pianos, Part 6

Piano 29: Shore Road Park

• Saturday, June 13th, after teaching all day
• Really beautiful location with a grand piano
• I arrived to find someone playing pop music quite passionately. This person turned out to be a piano hog, unfortunately.
• Another guy showed up on a bike and clearly wanted a turn, so I let him go first. He played a cover of Let It Go as his second piece and a little girl nearby started dancing so happily!
• I met Jessica, a volunteer photographer for Sing For Hope; Glen, a rock pianist who was quite friendly; and a mysterious elderly woman who looked possibly Chinese but was not speaking Mandarin (or English). I don’t think she was speaking Cantonese either. But she tried to talk to me several times and I could only smile and nod. She did manage to express that she enjoyed my playing.
• I was able to see a beautiful sunset by the water.

Piano 30: Montefiore Park

• Sunday, June 14th, again after teaching all day
• The event lasts only two weeks, and I knew that there was a lot of rain in the forecast for the coming week (the last week). I had already performed a lot during the first week and I wanted to make sure that I visited all the pianos, so I decided to try to limit my amount of time at each piano. I knew that the coming week would be a battle between me and the weather.
• This piano had previously been closed when I visited it the first time, so I was very happy to find it open.
• This was a very quick visit, but three people talked to me after I performed one or two pieces and they were very appreciative and enthusiastic about my playing.
• One of the keys on this piano didn’t work, but it didn’t affect my concentration.

Piano 31: Marcus Garvey Park

• This was another piano that had previously been closed.
• I again had a very receptive audience here. I even received a “Bravo! Bravissimo!”
• It really warms my heart to know that so many people are willing to be friendly and warm. It makes me realize how easy it can be to meet people as long as you have even one small topic of conversation – in this case, the pianos! In other words, the pianos really do bring people together.

I got to Joyce Kilmer Park in the Bronx at almost 8:30 PM. Sadly this one was closed. I decided to try to return to the piano in the morning.

Monday, June 15th: I returned to Joyce Kilmer Park and found that the piano was STILL closed. Probably it was because thunderstorms were in the forecast. It didn’t matter that it was actually bright and sunny when I arrived… I knew that the Piano Buddies in charge of the pianos didn’t always have the luxury of checking on the pianos several times throughout the day.

Piano 32: Roosevelt Island

• I was happy to find a grand piano, but disappointed to find it heavily damaged.
• As you can see from the picture, at least six or seven of the keys on the piano no longer worked, presumably because of rain damage.
• When a certain number of keys don’t work, there reaches a point where the message of a piece simply cannot be communicated. Unfortunately I felt like I couldn’t legitimately perform a piece this time around.

Piano 33: Jackson Heights Post Office

• Pretty quiet piano, but this one is thankfully not damaged
• The person who I asked to take my picture also asked me to take a picture of them with the piano. Of course, I was happy to do so.
• Two girls – probably in middle school – showed up almost immediately and were so excited over the piano. I told them to take care of the piano and to please cover it with the tarp if it started to rain. They nodded at me very sincerely. I was glad they were taking the responsibility so seriously.

Piano 34: Kaufman Studios Entrance

• Felt a few drops of rain on the way there, but somehow it wasn’t raining when I actually arrived
• The tarp was on the piano at first, but the guard was nice enough to let me play and even take a few pictures for me.
• Someone on the street stopped to listen, but didn’t approach me to talk afterwards. I wondered if the bad weather made it more unlikely that people would talk to each other.
• I made sure to cover the piano when I left, as it would surely begin to rain soon.

I unfortunately had to call it a day after finding only three pianos. Still, it was quite lucky that any of the pianos I found had been open at all!

Piano 35: Hunter’s Point Park

• Tuesday, June 16th: More thunderstorms in the forecast, but I thought I might as well try my luck!
• I just love these locations that are near the water. I bet it would have been even more beautiful on a sunny day.
• This mirror piano combined with the cloudy day made for a very reflective morning.
• Two mothers each brought their children in strollers over to listen to me.
• I performed my five Chopin preludes with much more success than before.

The next two locations – WNYC Transmitter Park and McGolrick Park – BOTH had locked pianos because of the inclement weather. Nevertheless, I still pressed onward.

Piano 36: Maria Hernandez Park

• I successfully performed a bunch of new pieces, but people didn’t pay much attention at this location.
• I thought about how certain neighborhoods and certain groups of people tended to be more or less responsive to music in general. I thought about how each piano location had its own unique atmosphere and character.
• And I thought about how you should always play with all your heart, even when no one is listening.
• A man showed up and seemed to enjoy playing and singing something with Latin rhythms even though he wasn’t a very advanced pianist.
• As I was leaving, a mother was trying to coax her daughter into playing the piano. So different from the parents who practically had to drag their children away from these outdoor pianos!

Piano 37: Brownsville Recreation Center

• I had such an incredibly warm welcome at this location!
• A older man named Robert convinced me to go inside and see the facilities of the recreation center even though I insisted that I wasn’t an athlete. Everyone inside was so friendly and accommodating.
• I met Mitch, who sings Caribbean music and apparently has quite a following on YouTube.
• I also met a lady at the front desk who used to sing opera!
• Robert and Mitch convinced a whole bunch of people to come out of the recreation center to hear me play. And even after I performed a few pieces for them, Mitch would still bring out other people one by one. It was very sweet and rather funny.
• Both my playing and my singing were received very warmly. Mitch even asked me for vocal tips, which I found very flattering.
• I was asked if I gave piano lessons and if I would come back to perform for some sort of event, but I told them that unfortunately I lived too far away.
• I told them what a wonderful community they had there and thanked them for treating me as such an honored guest.

Piano 38: Carl Schurz Park

• The setting sun was so bright and powerful as I entered the park that I had to snap a picture.
• This location was just jaw-droppingly gorgeous. I thought I was taking a huge risk by continuing to try to find pianos with rain in the forecast, but somehow the rain just never really came. I was very glad that I had decided to take the chance.
• As you can see from the pictures above: Two guys were playing some sort of boogie-woogie duet when I showed up. Then a guitarist showed up and started to play along with them! The playing was of a very high level.
• I talked to them and found out that Alan was the pianist who was sitting down, Sebastian was the pianist who was standing up, and Danny was the guitarist. Apparently Alan and Danny had known each other for over 30 years (!) and Sebastian had just met them at that location.
• I said I would play my arrangement of the Castle in the Sky theme. In an amazing coincidence, Sebastian said he had just played the theme at that piano not too long ago! It turned out that he was a huge Miyazaki fan.
• The piano’s keys were not all completely responsive, but somehow I had struck a chord with the audience and received quite a lot of applause. Someone even asked for an encore. I of course happily obliged!

The next post will be about adventures in Staten Island with my mom!