This is the most important question of all, and the answer is a resounding Yes! The Sing for Hope Pianos are for everyone and anyone to enjoy. Have a seat and play — it’s all yours!
Absolutely. Most people who enjoy the Sing for Hope Pianos are amateurs who just want to have some fun, including many children who are experiencing a piano for the first time!
Seriously, it’s okay. The Sing for Hope Pianos aren’t about making perfect music (whatever that is!); they’re about creating spontaneous moments of community. Have a seat and see what happens!
Sure! Grab a piano-playing friend and bring your mat! The Sing for Hope Pianos are there for you to enjoy in all manner of possible community engagement: dance parties, musical meditations, sing-alongs — let your imagination take over.
There’s no time limit, but we ask all visitors to the Sing for Hope Pianos to be respectful of the people around them. Please try not to monopolize the piano if there are others waiting to play.
Check out our interactive map of SFH Piano locations at singforhope.org/pianos
You can find us on Instagram @singforhope, Twitter @singforhope, Facebook @sing4hope, and by following #singforhope and #singforhopepianos. Find the artists’ bios, artist’s statements, and social media links on their pages at singforhope.org/piano-gallery, and please tag them as well!
Please do! We encourage you and your organization(s) to share concerts, lessons, etc. on the Sing for Hope Pianos as much and as often as you like. That said, please do note our emphasis on flexibility with event start times. You may arrive to a five-year-old’s first tour of the keys, etc. — so you’ll want to be flexible with your start time and mindful of the communal kindness at the heart of the program.
No. We are all about an old-school acoustic vibe (and you sound gorgeous without a mike, by the way). To that point, did you know that the piano was originally called the pianoforte, Italian for soft-loud, because of its gorgeous range of dynamics, from pianissimo (super soft) to your fortissimo (super loud)? So get out there and explore all of your volume levels, but without amplification, please.
No permit is needed if your performance is being recorded or live streamed using any of the following nonprofessional items: hand-held camera, cell phone, tripod on piano or selfie stick, small tripod, and if it is for non-commercial use such as social media/personal use. Written permission is required from the site hosting the Sing for Hope Piano if commercial equipment is being used, if there is use of the public right of way, if your recording/video equipment blocks the sidewalk, and/or if you are intending to market any of the footage or photos, now or in the future.
All Sing for Hope Pianos are closed, locked, and covered overnight, and in certain cases, they may need to be closed so as not to interfere with a performance or event nearby. For up-to-date information about a particular Sing for Hope Piano and its hours of open play, be sure to visit us online at singforhope.org. If you have checked our website for open play hours and have encountered a piano that’s locked at a time when you think it should be open, please let us know at [email protected].
Each Sing for Hope Piano comes outfitted with an attached custom tarp to protect it from the elements and each site hosting a Sing for Hope Piano has generously volunteered their time to cover and uncover the Piano when it rains. Keeping moisture off the piano and out of the piano is the single most important thing we do to ensure it can be donated after its use in public to a school, hospital, or community center.
We have a mobile team of technicians who work every day of the program, checking on the pianos regularly and making any necessary adjustments that they can. At the start of each day, our piano technician team triages any reported problems so they can respond to the most urgent issues first before resuming their regular tuning.
We’re currently fully staffed for the service that is required for our pianos. However, please email us your information at [email protected], and someone will contact you if any opportunities open up.
The quickest way to report a problem with a piano is to email [email protected]. When reporting a problem, please provide as much detail as you can with regard to the location and the issue in question, as well as the best way to contact you.
The SFH Pianos’ public residency outdoors in parks and public spaces is only part of their story! Their music is a year-round continuum of arts for all. After their time in the parks and public spaces, the Sing for Hope Pianos receive TLC from our piano technicians and are then permanently placed in a public school, hospital, or community-based organization. For many of these “forever homes,” it’s their first-ever musical instrument! We’ve found that three to four weeks is just enough time for the public to enjoy the Sing for Hope Pianos, while also ensuring that they can stay protected enough from the elements to live on for years in a classroom or community space.
Thanks for your generosity in thinking of us! That said, due to the cost and logistics of piano moving, Sing for Hope is only able to accept a very limited number of pianos to benefit our communities. If you are interested in sharing details of your piano with us so we can assess our capacity to accept it (and suggest an alternative non-profit if we can’t accept it right now), please fill out our simple intake assessment form at this link.
In addition to the Sing for Hope Pianos, Sing for Hope brings year-round creative arts programming to schools, healthcare centers, veterans centers, and more. Go to singforhope.org or email and find out how you can stay connected and involved. And as a donor-supported non-profit, we hope you’ll consider making a donation at singforhope.org/donate. No donation is too small, and every dollar donated allows us to continue our mission of arts for all.
Each Sing for Hope Piano is an individually credited work of art by an artist who has been specially selected through a robust adjudication process. The artists were selected based on proposals submitted via our open call, and adjudicated by a volunteer panel of art world luminaries and community leaders. These artists are credited on the panel on the front of their Sing for Hope Piano, along with the title of their individual creation. Find the artists’ bios, Artist’s Statements, and social media links on their pages at singforhope.org, and please tag them as well!
All artists submit an application with work samples and a rendering of the proposed piano design. If you are an artist and would be interested in creating a Sing for Hope Piano please email [email protected].
After receiving some TLC from our piano technicians, we place each Sing for Hope Piano in its “forever home” in a public school or healthcare facility, where it continues to brighten lives for years to come.
In order to ensure that the Sing for Hope Pianos serve as many people as possible, we donate them to schools, healthcare facilities, community-based organizations and nonprofits only.
Sing for Hope harnesses the power of the arts to create a better world. Our creative programs bring hope, healing, and connection to millions of people in hospitals, schools, care facilities, refugee camps, transit hubs, and community spaces worldwide. A non-profit organization founded in New York City in 2006, Sing for Hope partners with hundreds of community-based organizations, mobilizes thousands of artists in creative service, and produces artist-created Sing for Hope Pianos across the US and around the world. The official Cultural Partner of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates, Sing for Hope champions art for all because we believe the arts have an unmatched capacity to uplift, unite, and heal. Learn more and join the movement at singforhope.org.
From the Bronx to Beirut, The Sing for Hope Pianos are a global arts initiative that creates artist-designed pianos; places them in parks, streets, and public spaces for anyone and everyone to play; then transports and activates them year-round in permanent homes in schools, hospital, and community-based organizations. To date, Sing for Hope has produced more than 600 Sing for Hope Pianos – each one an individually credited, one-of-a-kind work of art created by our brilliant artist partners including Diane von Furstenberg, Julian Schnabel, Lance Johnson, Laura Alvarez, Isaac Mizrahi, and rising stars from Sing for Hope's partner schools, healthcare facilities, and community-based organizations. With over 5 billion media impressions and estimated reach of 2 million people annually, the Sing for Hope Pianos form a year-round continuum of “arts for all” that reaches from their communal arts studio, to their summertime residency in parks and public spaces, to their ultimate permanent homes in communities.
Sing for Hope is governed by our dedicated Board of Directors comprised of leaders from the sectors of arts, philanthropy, business, and social entrepreneurship. The organization is led by the Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors Monica Yunus and Camille Zamora, acclaimed sopranos and arts advocates who met as students at Juilliard, and who guide and grow our programs together with Chief Operating Officer Richard Robertson and our twelve-member team.
