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Have you noticed something different about the city lately? Different, as in, there are random pianos scattered about? Play Me I’m Yours is a public art project currently underway in Toronto as a lead-up to the 2015 Pan-Am Games. Getting no shortage of attention, blogs and newspapers alike have reported on the interactive project which features 41 pianos located in public spaces like parks, universities, cultural centres and even – the Toronto Island ferry. Each piano is representative of a different country, painted by an artist from the country it represents.

 

I visited a few of the pianos on, or close to campus and was happy to see the project working just as it’s intended – children and adults alike taking a seat at the pianos and ticklin’ those ivories (I’ve never noticed the sexual undertones of that colloquialism is before, but I digress). At each of the sites, conversation was lively with those taking photos and participating in the project – exactly what public art should do! How wonderful it is to make conversation with strangers in the big city of Toronto, which can sometimes seem a bit cold.

 

At our resident U of T piano, situated in the Willcocks Common (between Sid Smith and Lash Miller) I creepily lurked and started taking photos of Kevin He, who was probably the best pianist I had seen do his thang that day. Eventually he noticed, the piano broke the stranger-on-campus ice, and I was able to ask him a few questions. It turns out one of his majors, Music (his other is Architecture) has been bringing him to the piano quite often. Currently composing a piece he will perform at the end of August in North York, Kevin said the piano has helped with the sometimes difficult task of booking of piano-time at the Faculty of Music.

 

I hope Kevin gets his plays in while he still can, as the exhibit will see those pianos moving away on August 31^st  (sad face). In the meantime, I suggest you check out a piano or – 41? in the meantime.