Prince George, B.C.- The placement of five pianos in public spaces in Prince George  may  not be over  for all  of the  pianos.

(at  right, the painted piano that was placed at the Prince George Airport -photo 250News archive)Three  old pianos were placed  at outdoor locations ,  another  was placed at the Prince George Airport and  one was placed at the Civic Centre.  The Project coordinator, Peter Stevenson of P.S. Piano Service says the painted piano at the Airport has been so well received,  YXS has asked  if  it can stay for a while longer before  becoming part of the Two Rivers Art Gallery’s collection.  The other painted piano will be going to  Dreamland  School of the Arts on Queensway, where the painter of that piano  has a connection

The original plan  was to have a recycling party for the three outdoor pianos once the 10 day  event was over,  but  there’s been a change to that tune. “We decided to cancel the recycling party because  one of the pianos,   somebody sat down and played, and said he fell in love  with it and he wants  it.” Stevenson  says he reminded the  man that the  piano had several issues,  “He just loves it, so one of them is going to go to somebody’s house.”

That leaves two of the outdoor pianos  available,  and Stevenson says they just might show up at the BCNE “They contacted me  and they’re talking  about  having one or two pianos for their event.”

So instead of recycling the two remaining pianos, Stevenson says they will be available  for the BCNE and other  community events if someone else wants to have a piano at one of their events.

Did the public piano event go as well as Stevenson had hoped?  “Yes,  even more so” says Stevenson “A friend of mine  at  the HSBC building  said she came out  after work one day and thee was somebody playing  a song on the piano, and there was someone walking  down the street, and started singing along, so there was this kind of impromptu duet  of these two  strangers making music together.”