Play It Again, Downtown: In Local Parks, the Pianos Are All Yours

By Jessica Terrell

POSTED May. 30

Sing for Hope's Pop-Up pianos are coming back to Downtown.
CARL GLASSMAN / TRIBECA TRIB
Carl Howell was one of many who played a Pop Up Piano last year in City Hall Park. The park will host another piano this month.
It's art to play with, look at, listen to and touch, and it's coming soon to a park near you. Starting June 18, 88 brightly painted pianos—representing the instrument’s 88 keys—will be placed in public spaces from Battery Park to the Bronx for anyone to play.

Pop-Up Pianos, conceived by the nonprofit organization Sing for Hope, debuted last year with 60 pianos across the five boroughs. The artistic and social experiment brought together key-banging toddlers, classical pianists, jazz musicians, and young pop fans to perform for, well, whomever.

“A momentary connection with a random human being is the most beautiful thing you can do,” Ed Arzomando told the Trib last summer, after playing a few tunes with a stranger in Battery Park.

This year is going to be even bigger and better, organizers say.

Around 65 artists and several groups of public school children have been working since April to turn the donated pianos into often wild works of art. The workshop is housed in the spacious ground floor of the former AT&T building at 32 Sixth Ave in Tribeca. Several fashion designers, including Diane von Furstenberg and Isaac Mizrahi, also created pianos this year. Artists painted their final brush strokes last weekend, and Sing for Hope will announce on June 10 which pianos will be placed where.

The Pop Up Pianos can be found Downtown at Washington Market Park, Tribeca Park, City Hall Park, Battery Park and Stone Street. The pianos are covered at night and looked after daily by local organizations such as Friends of Washington Market Park and the Downtown Alliance.

The piano installation will also feature several Pop-Up concerts, including one by Sylvana Joyce on June 20 from 6 to 6:30 p.m. at Battery Park. Musicians can reserve pianos online to create their own Pop-Up events, playing on their own, bringing along a choir or jazz band, or organizing dancers.

“We are really looking to get everyone involved,” said Johanna Brickey, Sing for Hope’s manager of development.

After July 2, the pianos will be sent to public schools and hospitals. For a locations map, visit singforhope.org.