Play Me, I’m Yours: Luke Jerram’s Street Piano Extravaganza Comes to Boston

By Debra Cash

Sound links its listeners in a net of attention; it is an orientation device and an opportunity.

Since 1997, sound has been British artist Luke Jerram’s raw material for his sculptures, installations, and public art works. The Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Fine Print Research at the University of West of England, Jerram has created a giant, stainless steel aeolian harp whose metal tubes vibrate in the wind; rigged tiny, hypersensitive microphones to plants growing in a botanical garden to amplify their barely perceptible acoustic emissions; designed a talking silver ring etched with a twenty second loop of his voice proposing marriage to his girlfriend Shelina (she said yes); and launched a “sky orchestra” of seven hot air balloons that wafted music into people’s bedrooms at dawn to infiltrate their dreams.

Aeolus installed at Lyme Park Estate, UK. Photograph by Luke Jerram.

From September 27-October 14, 2013, Boston becomes the next stage for Jerram’s international experiment in public sound and civic engagement when the Celebrity Series hosts the latest iteration of ‘Play Me, I’m Yours.’ Seventy-five pianos will be installed throughout Boston’s neighborhoods and available for anyone to play whether their taste and talent runs from Heart and Soul to Liszt, John Cage or Beyonce. ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ is the performing arts series’ 75th season anniversary gift to the city.

In LA, 30 pianists performed a simultaneous rendition of the first prelude of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. In New York, musicians organized a piano marathon whose participants aspired to play every one of the pianos set up in the five boroughs, announcing their itinerary to their fans over interactive Google maps and Twitter. (One musician who visited all 88 pianos recorded an 88-note song, note by note, on each one.) In Hangzhou, China, an eleven-day installation endures on a website of contributed photographs and videos. The largest installation to date was in Tilburg in the Netherlands, where townspeople played 101 pianos from their locations on nearly every street.

Paris 2012. Photograph by K Deviercy.

In Boston, anything is possible. The pianos assembled for Boston—some which hadn’t been played for years—were donated by music schools, individuals, and located through Craigslist and Facebook calls for donations. Young artists of the More Than Words collective painted the pianos in festive colors and patterns that Jerram says signal to passersby that the pianos are unintimidating and fun to play. When ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ in Boston ends, many of the pianos will be donated to local schools and community centers.

“The sound of pianos can affect the atmosphere of the street and transform architecture and how people occupy a space,” Jerram told me by phone earlier this summer. Some people find themselves queuing up at special locations; in some cities, others waited until 2:00 in the morning to play unseen. Two or three people can share a bench. It’s not at all uncommon to catch one pianist giving another an impromptu lesson on the spot.

Erratic weather? For an artist from the rainy British Isles, that wasn’t a deterrent. Each street piano has a designated “piano buddy” who may work in a nearby store. That person volunteers to stay alert and unfold the attached tarp when rain threatens. Bicycling piano technicians stop by weekly to keep the instruments in tune. Boston-based piano technician Michael Wilson volunteered to work on Play Me, I’m Yours when it was in New York, and he expects the half dozen technicians and interns making rounds on bicycles will enable the Boston team to spot check any problems before the pianos fall wildly out of tune.

Luke Jerram in Times Square, NYC. Photograph by Amarynth Sichel.

Play Me, I’m Yours has been so popular in London that public pianos are now a permanent fixture in some locations. Jerram tells of a composer who disembarked from a Eurostar train with 50 euros in his pocket and “the piano seemed to be waiting for him.” After playing in the train station every day, a fan introduced him to a music producer who ultimately gave him a recording contract. Other musicians have been hired for wedding and restaurant gigs. Two journalists who met while reporting on ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ in Sydney got married and invited the artist to their wedding.

Italian street musician Fabio Tedde, however, probably deserves a special commendation for Street Piano loyalty. Tedde has followed Jerram’s project all over the world: Munich, Tilburg, Los Angeles, and New York, posting his homemade videos to fundraise for his travels, and couch surfing where he can. “I have been playing music on the street for 12 years,” Tedde told me by phone from London. “In the theatre, people have to pay for a ticket. When the people stop to listen to you in the street, they really want to listen to you. Whatever happens on the street is real.”

Street Pianos opening event, with Mayor Tom Menino and artist Luke Jerram, is scheduled for Sept 27, 2013 at Boston City Hall.
The gala kickoff party for Play Me, I’m Yours is Saturday October 5.

Visit www.streetpianosboston.com or www.celebrityseries.org to learn more.