About Us

---

As a young boy I loved playing the piano; so much so that anytime I would find myself walking around town, I would always seek out a piano to play. In 2009 there were public pianos placed all around Ybor City during an event called "Pianos in Ybor." One of them was placed at Crowbar Ybor. After playing electric bass with my old band during a breast cancer benefit concert, I saw a painted piano offstage, and I proceeded to play following my set. I performed Queen, Billy Joel, and other favorites by the Beatles, getting everyone around me to sing along. Tom DeGeorge, the owner of the Crowbar offered me a paid opportunity to play piano at his wedding...and this was my first time to ever get paid as a wedding pianist!

He had taken in that painted piano off the street following the Ybor piano exhibit, and it was one of many. Years later, around 2015, Joshua Streeter placed several pianos around St. Petersburg, FL for the public to play, including by Ruby's Elixir, and under the interstate.  Around the same year, Luke Jerram initiated Play Me I'm Yours, which has placed thousands of pianos around the world, offering inspiration to millions. The former piano in St. Petersburg, FL was painted rainbow colors in celebration of pride, but was destroyed. A kind woman replaced the piano under the highway overpass near Central avenue in 2021. The following year I found myself working on a business project in Atlanta, GA, and to my plesant surprise, the hotel had a grand piano! Unfortunately, about a dozen of the keys were not working, and so I found myself searching the internet for a "public piano in Atlanta."

I was delighted to learn the Play Me Again Pianos had placed about 30 pianos around metro Atlanta for the Public to use. Other Inspirational piano projects like Sing For Hope Pianos and Pianos For Peace were also impressive, but Atlanta's project decided to keep pianos out on the streets permanently, which I found to be truly unique, as other projects tend to take them off the streets after a time.

When I came home from my trip in 2022 I searched for the pride piano. I thought it would be nice to play some music in the sun after returning home to FL. But alas, the piano was nowhere to be found! In fact I could not find any public pianos in the Tampa Bay Area!

So I started talking to my boss at the time, Sean Kinane, News Director of WMNF 88.5 FM Community Radio, where I was working as a morning news anchor for locally produced broadcast news at the time. He heard my vision to bring a project like this to Tampa once again. 

One day he shared with me a post online that showed someone donating three pianos! I thought to myself that This would be just the catalyst Needed to start this project. Jimmy Dunson, who volunteers with Tampa Food Not Bombs and Mutual Aid Disaster Relief had begun renting a new office space, and the pianos were left over from an old music school. I rented a truck and a storage unit, and went to check them out with my old friend Nick Miller. The two of us started moving the heavy pianos across the carpet, which was no easy task, and Jimmy helped some as well. As we were moving the pianos, we found an old card inside the piano that said "Burgess School of the Arts." I learned that a preacher and music teacher named Carlton Burgess could not afford to take the pianos with him when his music schools changed location. So I started looking for homes for the new pianos.

The first one was placed on 10/7/2023 in front of 1920 Ybor. I didn't know at the time that this date would later be referenced for months to come due to the violence between Israel and Palestine. In history this is also the date that the US invaded Afghanistan, the date that Mother Theresa founded Missionaries of Charity, and the date that Henry Ford created the automatic assembly line for automobiles. It became clear to me that any day that we wake up we must make a choice for war, peace, or prosperity, and I chose peace and prosperity for our world.

The second piano was donated to Hulaween, and Bryan Roberts, Skye Losey, Ruts, Makenna, Joo, and Justin Bolognino helped  me to create an awning for that piano so it could be placed inside the bustling music festival, which is a top 50 Billboard music festival. This piano, while not painted, was also on disply during Hulaween 2024.

The third piano from Burgess was painted by Alyona Garcia Vianello, whom I met after Hulaween. Alyona Garcia, also known as "Miz. Ameeka," is a Russian-born artist based in South Florida, specializing in surrealist and abstract art. Her work is deeply influenced by human connection, vulnerability, and the exploration of our inner selves. Through her art, she delves into the complexities of being vulnerable with others and embracing the personal growth that comes with self-exploration.

  Growing up, Alyona often felt detached from the external world, perceiving and interacting with it in ways that set her apart. Over time, she has come to appreciate the beauty of diversity and the importance of different perspectives and cultural intersections. Her art reflects this evolving understanding, celebrating the connections between cultures and personalities that blend, clash, influence, and inspire.  
   Her primary goal in art is to uncover her true authenticity, recognizing that being honest with oneself is often easier said than done. She believes that persistent inner work is essential for personal growth, and it is through this growth that we are able to connect with those who share our values.

Working primarily with acrylics, watercolors, and ink, Alyona's pieces often stem from fleeting ideas that come to us at the quietest moments, right before bed, capturing the essence of her evolving insights into the world around her.  

She painted a piano after graduating USF Tampa this year, and her work is now on permanent display at the USF Centre Gallery.

We then started getting piano donations after some amazing news coverage of our project. Our first painted piano was released 1/06/2024, also a day in which we chose to highlight peace and prosperity in our world by unveiling the piano at 1920 Ybor. 

Our second painted piano was painted by John Edward, who learned to paint during Art Therapy, and our third painted piano was painted by Addison Hoven, whom I met at Hulaween. Those two pianos were put on display at Gasparilla Music Festival, and then donated to HCC bor, where they can still be found outside. I then left town on another business trip, and coordinated our fourth and fifth pianos while I was working in NYC. 

Both of those pianos were unveiled during the 2024 Ybor Arts Tour, and can be found at Crowbar and Marcolina's Fine Arts Gallery respectively. 

Alyona's piano at USF marks our sixth piano in Tampa, but that's not all! While I found myself on business trips in Kansas City, MO, Lawrence, KS, and Syracuse, NY this year, I worked with artists and venues in those communities to try and bring pianos out to the public while I was working on the road. 

My commitment in January was to bring 12 pianos to Tampa in 2024, and that is a commitment I intend to keep! Not counting our out of state pianos, we have 6 and possibly 7 more pianos planned in the coming weeks, including pianos for the Imagine Museum, Visit Tampa Bay, Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park's Winter Village, The Kress Art Collective, Armando Personal Injury Law, and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. We are also considering pianos for Carrollwood, New Tampa, Sarasota, and we are hoping to have one at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts.

In 2025, we will work with the Tampa Downtown Partnership to bring 7 pianos to each of the unique neighborhoods throughout Tampa's downtown, and hope to make music and art as commonplace in our world as playgrounds and water fountains.

But you may ask, "why would you do this when pianos will eventually break down?"

Because these pianos are more than just a tourist draw. One boy did travel from Melbourne to Tampa (a three hour drive each way) to spend his birthday playing on our pianos. He hopes one day to have his own piano project where he's from. He could have picked any one of Florida's many attractions, but he chose music and expression. 

We are also honored to have offered some inspiration to Please Play Me Pianos in Greenville, SC. Their piano project is doing very well and their progress is also inspiring us as we all learn from each other while we grow together in this public piano movement! 

Vlad Malkovich also helped connect us with the Imagine Museum St. Petersburg, after reaching out to us through our website. So for that we're also grateful to have engaged people coming out to support this movement. 

Aline Giampetro, Nick Peters, Janine Quarles-Atkins, Tian Liu, Pail Catala,, Michelle SawyerJulie Legner, Tony Castellano, and Josh Kim have also helped with performing on our pianos, and documenting the journey. 

Thanks to Maggie Webber of vVisit Tampa Bay, Ivy lupco of the Tampa Downtown Partnership, City Councilmembers Bill Carlson and Guido Maniscalco, Michael Dortch of Mickey's Subs, Tad Denham of Recycled Tunes, and Tracy Midilla of Tempus Projects for helping support the project. 

These pianos bring joy to the world, and in a way, are a lot like us. As human beings, our bodies are fragile, aging, and impermanent. And although we all will find ourselves coming to terms with our individual transience, we must embrace the ephemeral nature of our lives and embrace each day with open arms. In order for us to each "Carpe Diem," or seize the day, we must make a choice every day to celebrate our lives, share our gifts with each other, and remind the world that for all the pain, suffering, struggle, and unfairness that we each contend with in this life, we must always remember to do the things which we love, and give joy to each other. And hopefully in making small changes in our communities, we will offer each other a glimmer of hope. Perhaps one day we will not only embrace bringing art, music, and most importantly those magical moments where people gather together and sing, dance, and play alongside their neighbors, but we will love our lives: And that love may inspire us to do more- to be more kind, to demand better infrastructure and services from our leaders, and to take care of this planet and place we call home. Please take this project as a beacon of hope and inspiration for what is possible when we choose to create a world of beauty and embrace the depths of the minds and souls of the artists and musicians among us who call on us to discover the magic that is born when we believe in ourselves and each other.