The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, has an entrepreneurial competition they call the Eastman New Venture Challenge.
This is how it got started: “The Institute for Music Leadership (IML) received a major part of a $3.5 million grant to the University of Rochester from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to support entrepreneurship education. The IML’s focus in ‘entrepreneurship in music’ is helping students learn how to turn promising ideas into enterprises that create value.”
Award winners Marissa Balonon-Rosen and Lauren Petrilli came up with the Pianos for Peace Project.
According to the Eastman website, Pianos for Peace “follows the idea that by actively involving people in music, we can make for a more peaceful community. This summer, about 10 pianos (upright and baby grand) will be placed throughout the City of Rochester (mostly outdoors) for anyone to play. They will be placed in several different neighborhoods, including those that generally do not have much access to the arts or pianos.
“Youth, local artists, and community members will work together to paint the pianos peace themed. After a couple weeks, we will create a ‘Piano Park for Peace’ by placing the pianos outdoors at the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence … . There will be several events to bring the community together through music and peace — free piano lessons, yoga, lectures about nonviolence, etc. The surviving pianos will then be donated to youth-focused and nonviolence-focused organizations.”
I once read about something similar in New York City, here. The British artist Luke “Jerram got the idea at his local coin-operated laundry, according to a website about the project. He saw the same people there every weekend, but none of them talked to each other. He thought a piano might help bring people together in places like that.”
The Pianos for Peace Project seems to be building on that idea. Read more about Marissa Balonon-Rosen and Lauren Petrilli, here.
Photo: Suzanne’s Mom
Until Eastman posts pictures of the Pianos for Peace, this one in a public space will have to do. Who can tell me where it is?
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
What a wonderful idea! I hope they cover them so they are not destroyed by rain.
I saw videos of passersby noticing the random pianos in NYC, tentatively sitting down, and then really getting into playing. Charming.
I wish I could play well enough not to need my music. 🙂