Mauro ffortissimo, Artist; Musician; Founding Member, Enso Art Collective; Founding Member, Miles Davis Memorial Hall
Dean Mermell, Owner and Director, Storyfarm Productions

This program is part of the 2015 Platforum series Music Matters, sponsored by Ernst & Young and the John and Marcia Goldman Foundation.

When Mauro ffortissimo placed an old piano onto the bluffs of the San Mateo coast in February, 2013, played it for two weeks, and burned it, a lot of people noticed. Filmmaker friend Dean Mermell joined forces with Mauro, forming the Sunset Piano project, which began installing (and deconstructing) pianos at select outdoor locations in the Bay Area. On the heels of their Flower Piano project in Golden Gate Park, Mauro and Dean will talk about their work and play a “liberated” piano in concert with a “prepared” piano in the style of John Cage.