The “Play Me, I’m Yours” is a project started in 2008 by British artist Luke Jerram. It started with a total of fifteen pianos being distributed across Birmingham, England, over three weeks. During that period, an estimated 140,000 people either played or listened to the music from these pianos. Since then, the project has spread to other countries and cities such as Sao Paulo, London, New York and Sydney.
This year, a total of 41 pianos were distributed across Toronto in celebration of the 2015 Pan American Games. One of the pianos was situated at the corner of Trinity Bellwoods Park. However, when random concerts started occurring at 3am in the mornings, it got on the wrong foot with some of the residents living nearby. This gave rise to complaints of the piano being too noisy. Eventually, it forced the organisers to find a new location for the piano. “It was always prefaced with ‘We love this project,’ but people were playing it very late,” stated Iris Nemani, the Pan Am’s arts and culture program producer.
There were no particular genre of music that were not suitable. Since the piano was opened to the public, all genres were accepted. Initially, the caretaker of the piano thought the problem would have been solved by locking the piano at night. However, when some determined musicians decided to break the lock and start playing, the problem needed a new solution. They tried shifting the piano deeper into the park, but that didn’t work well either as it wasn’t in a visible location. “We miss the piano so much; we’re so sad it’s gone. It was just a wonderful installation in the park,” said Anna Hill, a mother who took her children to listen to the pianists every night.
As the organisers didn’t want the project to cause a negative impact and frustrate anyone, they came to a conclusion that it had to be removed. It’s supposed to be a joyous experience,” said Iris. They sent it for some repairs first as some of the keys were damaged and tuned it before placing it at the Sony Centre, at Front and Yonge Sts. Apart from this piano, only one other piano received a single complaint. “That speaks to how much our city has embraced this idea,” Iris mentioned. For the full story, be sure to check it out here.
If Singapore were to ever have such a project, you won’t want to be a disturbance to others right? In that case, you might want to consider signing yourself up for piano lessons with Piano Lessons SG today!