Assistant Professor Nick Weiser plays the piano Between Us, Beneath Us in the Village of Fredonia’s Barker Commons.
Don’t be surprised if you hear live piano music on your next visit to Barker Commons, the Dunkirk Boardwalk or the heart of SUNY Fredonia.
The Fredonia Street Piano Project at the university has placed truly unique pianos – each adorned with a different colorful painted design created by Fredonia students and alumni and prepared by the School of Music to withstand inclement weather – in the Village of Fredonia, the City of Dunkirk and the campus.
“The pianos become live art, where they will actually be playable. We’ll encourage members of the community to play the pianos,” said Mason Hall Facilities Director Marc Levy, who brought together the School of Music and departments of Theatre and Dance, and Visual Arts and New Media, to bring street pianos to the western-most corner of the state.
Each piano in the Fredonia Street Piano Project was named by the artist. The pianos are: Beneath Us, Between Us, in Barker Commons; Camo Drip, place on the Starbucks patio on campus; and Polka Dot Piano, at the Dunkirk Boardwalk.
Fredonia Street Piano Project from Fredonia on Vimeo.
Mr. Levy envisioned placing street pianos in public spaces after seeing a decorated street piano being played during a visit to Montreal. “Someone was actually playing the piano there; that’s where the inspiration came from, that we could do that in Fredonia and the surrounding area,” Levy said.
Three 1960s vintage Baldwin upright pianos no longer in use in the School of Music were selected as Fredonia’s first street pianos. Graham Howes, the School of Music’s longtime head piano technician, got the pianos in shape to be played and weather-proofed key elements so they could live outdoors much of the year. He also prepared the pianos so they could be painted by the artists.
The goal is to place pianos in a public space, so that the public can play them; anybody who walks by can sit down and play, Mr. Howes said.
Fredonia Street Piano Project members worked with officials of the village and city to identify prospective homes for the pianos.
Christy May, ’21, Visual Arts and New Media: Animation and Illustration, decorated Camo Drip with a camouflage pattern. Erin Ruffino, ’19, Visual Arts and New Media: Drawing and Painting, presents a colorful interpretation of geological layers of rock in Western New York in Beneath Us, Between Us. Jodie White, ’17, Music Education, ’19, M.M. in Music Performance, and Steven McChesney, ’20, Music Education, created Polka Dot, an interactive piece of art, on the third piano.
The street pianos were unveiled at a dedication ceremony in the spring semester. Musicians who played the pianos included Mario Qing Fei Chai, a senior majoring in Music Performance, with a concentration in Piano, of Johor, Malaysia; Eunjoo Jeon, ’15, M.M. in Music Performance, of Incheon Republic of China, with vocalist Adria Urbanowicz, junior, Musical Theater, minors in Dance Studio Administration, Dance and Arts Administration, of Waterford, Pa.; Dylan Jaques, Music, with concentrations in Piano and Jazz, minor in History, of Saratoga Springs; and Professor Fr. Sean Duggan, coordinator of the Piano Area in the School of Music.
Buffalo-based Big L Windows & Doors, the primary sponsor of the inaugural year of the Fredonia Street Piano Project through the Fredonia College Foundation, is also connected to SUNY Fredonia. Bill Horbett Sr., president of Big L Windows & Doors, and Tom Walker, retired marketing director of the company, were part of the Theatre department in the 1970s. Mr. Horbett also announced his company will support the second year of the street piano project.
