Episode 97: Flower Piano

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Flower Piano Performers and Photos credits, Stephanie, Mauro, Dean - Allan Kuo, Young person plays at Flower Piano - Jim Watkins, Piano in New Zealand Garden - Travis Lange, Piano in Rhododendron Garden - Travis Lange, Piano in Moon Viewing Garden - Travis Lange, Martin Luther McCoy and with Paisley Hinton Perform at Flower Piano - Travis Lange, Oscar Cervarich playing Piano in Garden of Fragrance - Travis Lange, Tammy Hall and Leberta Lorál play at Zellerbach Garden, Piano in Ancient Plant Garden - Travis Lange, Piano at Great Meadow - Travis Lange

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“I always say that music is a healthy thing that we do. It's something that we strongly believe that even the flowers and the plants and the trees, really enjoy having music being played for them”-Mauro ffortissimo

One of the topics we’ve covered in our two plus years of producing this special series on the Covid-19 Pandemic’s impact on our community is the impact the pandemic is having on our live performing arts organizations. This episode features the voices behind the annual Flower Piano show in Golden Gate Park’s Botanical Garden.

Our featured voices are the Gardens of Golden Gate Park CEO Stephanie Linder along with the Co-Founders of Sunset Piano Dean Mermell and Mauro ffortissimo

Stephanie Linder - CEO, Gardens of Golden Gate Park

Stephanie Linder is the Chief Executive Officer of the Gardens of Golden Gate Park, a public/private partnership with the San Francisco Recreation & Park Department to jointly operate the Conservatory of Flowers, Japanese Tea Garden, and San Francisco Botanical Garden. She has been a park advocate for much of her career, with more than 25 years of experience in the non-profit sector. Previously, she was Director of Development and Communications at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. Before working at public gardens, she held leadership roles at San Francisco Parks Alliance, Sierra Club, The Trust for Public Land, and Planned Parenthood.

She is an alumna and former Board Chair of Emerge California, a candidate training program for women seeking elected office with a majority of graduates being women of color. Stephanie was instrumental in helping the organization develop a statewide presence. She holds a Master of Arts in American History from Binghamton University in New York and has taught U.S. Women’s History at the college level. For many years, Stephanie has called San Francisco’s Inner Sunset District home and enjoys walking to the Gardens of Golden Gate Park. Find out more about Stephanie here:

Mauro ffortissimo - Cofounder Sunset Piano

Argentinean/Italian/American, grew up in Argentina, where interest in art and music lead him to study classical piano and visual arts. He emigrated to California in 1981 to further his artistic explorations, taking classes in print making, sculpture and painting at San Mateo College, Art Institute, and Berkeley Extension. Mauro is a founding member of “849 Folsom Music”, a 13-member music and spoken word performance troop that brought vital energy to the San Francisco “South Market” artist underground scene in the pre-dot com years of the late 80’s.

As a founding member of the Enso Art Collective and the Miles Davis Memorial Hall, Mauro has been investigating sounds with the deconstruction of pianos, becoming more able to expand the 12-tone scale. He does not subscribe to the romantic notion of a solitary artist, a suffering individual, hidden in a state of despair, creating work that only few can appreciate; instead, Mauro travels the world, looking to the mundane, the sacred and the original with the same eyes, and listening to the music of diverse cultures, bringing it all home to work with its particular way of assimilation making art and music available to the community. Find out more about Mauro here:

Dean Mermell - Cofounder Sunset Piano

The rule is that all artists must have bios, or artist’s statements. I had one when I was a studio glass artist for many years, while I was represented by several national galleries. My work found its way into some prominent collections and architectural commissions. My statement read like it was written by somebody really smart, but it wasn’t; it was written by me, in a strange kind of all-knowing critic’s voice. I still love glass, but the work I’m doing now feels more like the person I am now. And the best part is I don’t need to get all fancy and write about myself in the third person anymore. I sometimes make films and produce music events. And for the past few years I’ve lived with my cat in the California desert.

San Francisco Botanical Garden

San Francisco Botanical Garden connects people to plants, the planet, and each other. A living museum within Golden Gate Park, San Francisco Botanical Garden offers 55 acres of beautiful gardens displaying 8,000 different kinds of plants from around the world, including many that are rare and endangered. Established in 1940, San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum is one of the three Gardens of Golden Gate Park along with the Conservatory of Flowers and Japanese Tea Garden which are collectively jointly operated by a public/private partnership between the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society (a nonprofit 501c3 organization doing business as the “Gardens of Golden Gate Park” or “GGGP”).

Sunset Piano

Mauro ffortissimo and Dean Mermell together launched Sunset Piano in 2013 when ffortissimo covertly rolled an old grand piano onto the bluffs over Half Moon Bay. As word spread through social media, the crowds grew way beyond the occasional dog walker. Thousands came to hear the music before the county ordered the piano removed. Since then, Sunset Piano has expanded this impromptu musical and social experiment, temporarily placing pianos in a wide variety of unexpected natural and urban settings around the Bay Area every year, from the top of Montara Mountain to Market Street. Flower Piano, a collaboration with San Francisco Botanical Garden, is Sunset Piano’s largest and most ambitious undertaking. Mermell’s documentary about Sunset Piano is entitled Twelve Pianos. For more information visit TwelvePianos.com or SunsetPiano.com

A collaboration of two multi-disciplinary artists who are promoting piano culture and other good things in an increasingly complex world, Mauro ffortissimo and Dean Mermell have brought pianos to the cliffs of the California coast, the streets of San Francisco, and the Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park, for our premiere event, Flower Piano ®. Sunset Piano hosts amazing local musicians and also invites the public to play their pianos under the open sky. Our supportive community of musical activists is growing daily. Stay tuned to this station, or join our Facebook group.

Donation/Volunteer

+ Here’s how you can support the Gardens of Golden Gate programs - make a donation to the Botanical Garden and Gardens of Golden Gate Park and become a member. Become a sponsor of Flower Piano levels $2,500-$100,000 Contact Director of Philanthropy Brooke Bedingfield at 415-661-1316 ext. 305 or bbedingfield@sfbg.org for more info on becoming a sponsor

+ Find out more about how to support Sunset Piano through donations, donating pianos and volunteering

+ Get engaged as a volunteer to support both Flower Piano and our Parks and Recreation programs

Videos

Watch these videos to find out more about Flower Piano and the documentary film Twelve Pianos

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“Flower Piano is, this unusual environment where lots of magic happens there. I think it’s the best response to the pandemic that we as humans can make.”

— Dean Mermell,Cofounder,Sunset Piano

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