Piano-playing Street Performer Brings Audience to Tears | Extraordinary People | New York Post

I wheel an 800-pound piano a little more than half a mile, just about four times a week. I play in the park all year round. I play in the snow. I play when it's wet out. Everyone deserves to have a positive, powerful, emotional music experience. There's no reason to deny that to anyone. I used to play for ballet classes. I was always looking for a more fulfilling artistic experience. And while I was in the subway and walking through Manhattan, I always saw street performers. And so I wanted to try my hand at street performing myself. One of the most integral parts of street performing is having a little bit of a spectacle. My roommate and I decided that bringing a real piano around would probably be the most unique thing to do. The way I push the piano is a strategy all in itself. I have to use a lot of brute force, but there's also a certain amount of leverage involved. I almost always have to keep my eye between the streets and what I'm going towards. Every now and again, there walks up that guy who says, Boy, I bet you wish that you played the flute. Hey, do you need some help? No, I only got one more block, so it's all good. You can come there and listen to the music. I try my best to hear and see all of the emotions of the people around me. I'm thinking about the emotions in the piece that I'm playing, and I'm hearing them and feeling them myself. I'm also looking at the people and thinking about how it's meaningful to them. Hey guys, leave. There's something very special that I do for people. I had a piano technician, and he would always tune the piano. As soon as he was done tuning, he would lay underneath the piano while I played to make sure it sounded just right. He would always exclaim how amazing it was, and I didn't think much of it. One of the fellows who often hangs out in the park was having an emotional day. He loves the piece called Clair de Lune, and he asked if I would play it. Some friends of mine and I helped him get under there, and I played it for him. When we brought him up, he had streaks of tears down his eyes. It was clearly a very emotional experience for him. It made me think, you know, this is something that I should provide for everybody. I don't know, the music comes from... it goes through me. It's like you're feeling the energy of this place. Just to be encompassed with all the music, and you feel it, and the vibrations, it's so loud. You feel the vibrations, you're not even thinking about anything. You're just like... There's a lot of confusion out there, and there's a lot of negativity, and music is one of the ways that we go out into the maelstrom of all this craziness, and we lift everybody up. So my hope and dream is that I can just get better at this. My life's work, my passion, is ultimately to provide amazing musical experiences to as many people as I can before I die. Here we go, here we go, here we go.