Sing for Hope is a charity that brings music into schools, nursing homes, veterans’ groups, and other community organizations. One of its big projects is the “50 Pianos” – they commission 50 volunteer artists to decorate 50 pianos to give to local schools. But before the pianos are distributed to schools, the pianos become a public art project, spending two weeks scattered all over New York City for people to play. On June 6th, there was an opening ceremony at Liberty Plaza with all the pianos gathered together before dispersal, available for anyone to play.

In addition to the pianos, the opening ceremony had a concert with many groups performing. One of my favorites was Michael Fennelly:

I was excited to meet Fabio Tedde, the “pianist without borders” who travels around the world giving concerts on street pianos:

Here’s a selection of some of the 50 pianos: