Please enjoy this selection of assorted media, featuring the piano installation.
Sketch by Aidan Kropiwnicki (December 13, 2024)
Composition and performance for the piano by Doug Smith (October 2024)
painting by Matthew Napoli (March 9, 2023)
Henry Wang ('28) recorded some improvisations at Piano (de)composition in March 2025. Read more about it at his website: https://henrywang.music/piano-decomposition/
A film featuring the outdoor piano by Amy Sabpisal (RISD '24). More information about Amy's film can be found here.
Piano etudes, improvised by Devanney Haruta
Series of piano etudes, improvised by Gabriel Zuckerberg
video by Jake Sokolov-Gonzalez (2023)
Sketches by Paul Wu (May 9, 2023). "Each one was a series of 30 second-ish sketches with a brush pen. The first [top left] was before the concert started, the second [below] is from the different improvisations, and the third [bottom left] is from the second to last improvisation where the audience closely gathered around (and below) the piano!"
OLD PIANO IN THE WOODS
poem by Tommy Little (from Brandon, MS, January 2024)
Someone left it here for nature to play,
this old grand piano beneath the trees.
The lid, now warped from sun, rain, and snow,
is propped open to the elements that play
their slow decomposition and the wind that
strums a discord of slackened strings.
Years of freeze and thaw have stolen the
ivory and ebony tops and left faded blue
remnants of the keys. It has collected a
decade of fallen leaves, inside and out.
They dance to the beat of acorns as a squirrel
scampers a trickle of sour notes across the keys.
The veneer is now a faded brown, cracked
and lifting. Moss and lichen have taken up
residence in the fissures and continue to press
and widen their abode. Tangles of honeysuckle
ascend the legs. They will soon invade the body
and choke the last somber notes of the wind.
I sit on the weathered stool and reverently strike
a mute dirge upon the keys, the audience of shedding
hardwoods now silent. I become part of this piece,
this decomposition; the song of nature, entropy,
and the defiant march of time not yet complete.
March 2024: Sketches by Marek Bennett, '97, https://www.patreon.com/posts/100199202.
About the piano, Marek writes: "👆 What a magical site -- Watching a grand piano decompose slowly (VERY slowly) into its various natural materials! But alas, this specimen was sinking fast into the mud, & the previous night's rains had dampened its tone... The only working notes were A-55 & the G just below it. Had to sketch fast! 💨"
February 17, 2024: A 3D model of the piano made by Shu Xu.
"body listening piece for 4 or 5 players" by Ruby Erickson (May 1st, 2024)