A couple of years ago, an effort got underway that would have seen the concept of Play Me I’m Yours (Street Pianos) come to Buffalo. At the time, a certain tragedy prevented the dream from unfolding, but today we are seeing another attempt to procure a similar project for Buffalo.
This time it’s writer/editor Mark Weber who is rallying for a number of public pianos to to be placed throughout the city, in districts such as Canalside and Larkin Square. The pianos would be situated outdoors and would be available to any passersby who might like to tickle the ivory whenever the mood sees fit. “When I went to New Orleans, there was music in the air,” said Mark. “Same thing with New York City. My thought was this: how much cooler would Buffalo be if you’d hear music in the air here? So Pianos in Public Buffalo came to me in a dream, and with people’s help, that dream can easily become reality.”
Mark also runs a website called BeautifulBuffalo.com, and just happens to be an accomplished singer and musician (see here). At this point, he is putting together the logistics in order to pull off the effort, but in the meantime Mark is also turning to the public in order to raise additional funds to acquire, fix, move, decorate the pianos. Here’s the link to the PayPal donation page. Mark has already acquired a number of pianos, and the money raised will go mostly towards moving around the beasts.
Good luck to Mark and his efforts to bring his outdoor musical creations to Downtown Buffalo. We’ll keep you posted as progress is made.