Piano project in London

A musical art project is underway in London. It’s simple: place a few pianos out on the street and see what happens. The BBC’s David Whitty walked the streets to finds out.
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LISA MULLINS: A musical art project is underway in Britain. The idea is simple, just place a few pianos out on the streets of London, and see what happens. The BBC’s David Whitty went looking for the pianos and their players.

DAVID WHITTY: Liverpool Street train station in central London, one the main transport hubs for London. Commuters rushing home after work, and by the main entrance is two people sitting at a piano. Do you know each other?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. [LAUGHS]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

DAVID WHITTY: But you’re sitting here on the same piano stool and one is teaching the other. How have you ended up on this piano stool together?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Basically I was going back from work and I just found a piano. It’s a lovely idea, I’m a piano player, so I love playing the piano.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then we got talking, I go, I’d love to play the piano. And then I was asking her, how do you do this, and how do you do that? And then she [INDISCERNIBLE] and then she’s been teaching us since then.

DAVID WHITTY: So you get your piano lesson right outside Liverpool Street Station.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Almost. [LAUGHS]

DAVID WHITTY: I’ll let you get on, thank you. I’ve come about two streets away from Liverpool Street now, to Devonshire Square Estate. And somewhere, I think I can hear destiny of pianos somewhere here.

[PIANO PLAYING]

DAVID WHITTY: Can I just ask you, why are you playing this piano?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE 2: Well, I’m waiting for my girlfriend to get the train at seven o’clock, so, and we found this. And I used to play piano quite a lot when I was young, so.

DAVID WHITTY: Are you charmed by his playing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE 2: Very charmed.

DAVID WHITTY: Fantastic. What do you think about pianos just being randomly scattered around on the streets of London?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE 2: [OVERLAPPING] I think it’s really, really, really good, actually, I think it should be here permanently as well.

[PIANO PLAYING]

LUKE JERRAM: My name’s Luke Jerram, and I’m the artist behind the street pianos project called Play Me, I’m Yours. The idea is to provide a creative blank canvas, really, for the public to express themselves. I installed 15 pianos in Sao Paulo, 30 pianos in Sydney. In Sydney there were people who’d never actually seen a really piano before, let alone have the opportunity to play one. Rather than asking the public to come in to an art gallery or museum, I’m interested in delivering an artwork directly to their door.

DAVID WHITTY: Just [INDISCERNIBLE] third piano, it’s in a housing estate in the middle of a big square. There’s four stories of flats on each side, it’s totally empty. The piano’s covered in a sheet of plastic, maybe it’s to waterproof it, and nobody’s playing. And, that’s why, because there’s a padlock on it. Maybe it disturbs people when they’re trying to put their kids to sleep here. But, I don’t know, this piano seems to be wasted at the moment. There’s a young man who’s just come up the steps to the square, what do you think of that piano there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE 3: It’s not necessary for keeping that there.

DAVID WHITTY: You don’t think it’s a good idea?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE 3: It’s a good idea, but what’s one gonna do between like, a thousand of people?

DAVID WHITTY: Has anyone played it so that you–

UNIDENTIFIED MALE 3: [OVERLAPPING] Yeah. I must have come here yesterday, come in with one of my boys in it, and he was playing that yesterday in it. But that’s just like, that was just me and him, The Terminator.

DAVID WHITTY: What, the theme music for the film?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE 3: The theme music, yeah.

[PIANO PLAYING]

LISA MULLINS: Amateur piano players interviewed by the BBC’s David Whitty in London.

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