Imagine Piano Peace Project
The Imagine Piano Peace Project is a peaceful demonstration against violence in which a piano associated with nonviolence is being exhibited at various sites of infamous violence.
The piano, a Steinway upright, was purchased by John Lennon in December 1970 and delivered to the recording studio in his home in Berkshire, England. There, in 1971, he composed and recorded the song Imagine on it and was filmed playing that song to his wife Yoko Ono on it. A private collector bought the "Imagine piano" in 1992 and allowed the Beatles' Story museum in Liverpool, England, to exhibit it from February to October of 2000, when it was sold by the auction house Fleetwood Owen, a business partnership of musician Mick Fleetwood and auctioneer Ted Owen that sold other Beatles memorabilia in that same auction.
In that 2000 auction, pop singer George Michael and his domestic partner Kenny Goss bought the piano for £1.45 million (plus the auction house's 15% commission). They allowed the piano to be exhibited at a peace protest on 22 November, 2006, at the "Grassy Knoll" in Dallas, Texas, U.S., where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November, 1963, and in April 2007 the piano began a "tour" of U.S. places where "significant" acts of violence took place: At each site, someone plays (and sometimes sings) the song Imagine, and the owners' employees videotape and photograph the event for future publications to benefit charity. Pictures are also posted to the tour's official webpage currently, showing where the piano has been and when.
External links
- Official webpage @ lennonpiano.com
- Imagine lyrics & sound @ niehs.nih.gov