Watch What Happens To A Piano Left On The Streets Of New York City

It takes an awful lot to surprise a New Yorker. From weird smells to weird encounters with weird people, New Yorkers are used to the oddities of life, but none of those experiences prepared photographer/ filmmaker Anthony Sherin for a piano in the middle of the sidewalk outside his Washington Heights apartment in Manhattan.

To this day, he has no idea who left it, but completely fascinated, he decided to get out his camera and take pictures of all the people who approached it, played with it and contemplated stealing it. After twenty-four hours, he assembled the photographs into a short film with an accompanying soundtrack, and the result is pretty powerful. It appeared on The New York Times’ website earlier this week, and now, it’s been made available on YouTube. You can take a look at the clip below…

You wouldn’t think watching a piano get destroyed would be so moving, but there’s something really unnerving and upsetting about seeing it ruined. It really makes you wish someone had pulled up in a van earlier and shoved it inside, giving it a second life at a school or a church or even a pawn shop. We’re used to garbage but not when it was once a treasured possession.

Here’s to hoping everyone who stopped and played the piano at least left the scene with a smile on their face and a pleasant memory.