Piano video went viral in a New York minute

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This article was published 29/09/2016 (2758 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tatyana Smolyaninov follows the music, and sometimes the music follows her.

A teacher at the Gray Academy of Jewish Education, Smolyaninov was in New York City in late June for the Tal Am professional development workshop on teaching Hebrew when she happened across a piano sitting in the street.

So, Smolyaninov did what only a few people would be capable of doing and what even fewer would have the courage to do — she asked to play a song on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqoyAWcpInM

“I was trying on some shoes — I was disappointed they were not on sale, so I didn’t buy it. I got out of the store, and I saw this piano, just on the street,” Smolyaninov said.

“It doesn’t matter where the piano (is), when I see the piano, I always ask to play. I’m originally a piano teacher, I’m playing since I was six, so for 39 years already. There was this very nice guy with a dog and I said, ‘Whose is this piano, and can I play?’ He said, ‘Of course’, and I just had to play it.”

What happened next is now the stuff of legends, not only in the halls and classrooms of Gray Academy but around the world.

Smolyaninov sat down, and, fingers flying across the keyboard and a look of peace on her face, played Jazz Étude by Manfred Schmitz so fabulously a crowd quickly gathered. People gaped in awe, some put money in the busker pail, some danced.

Someone shot video of her performance, posted it on the Internet, and now it’s gone viral — nearly two million views on one site — under the title Woman asks to play street piano and absolutely kills it.

But it’s been shared online countless other times, including the website of the piano’s owner, Dotan Negrin of New York.

It turned out the piano was on the NYC street because Negrin — known globally and profiled in the media as the man who is pushing his piano around the world and playing it wherever he and his dog, Brando, happen to be — had parked it there.

In the video, Negrin comes into the picture, dancing to Smolyaninov’s music while holding the dog. At one point, he places the little brown dog on the piano, and the dog dutifully barks along to Smolyaninov’s jazzy tune. Negrin has, since 2011, played his piano in 350 cities in 20 countries.

“After, I found out about him, it’s called Piano Around the World and he takes his piano around the world, to unusual places, and he places it there. It’s a very interesting project,” said Smolyaninov, who is happy to have been part of it.

“When I see a piano and I can sit and play, I don’t think about me being something special. I just love this, this is my love of music. I can’t live without music, I always play piano. I practise every day at home,” Smolyaninov said.

“This experience, I think mostly for me, I’m glad for our school and our community, it’s gone viral! It was a work trip for a course, and I like that our school now is part of it,” she said.

“My students say, ‘I saw you on video!’ So I’m trying to connect all of this experience to tell them that it doesn’t matter what you do, just do it. Be consistent with this and just do it. If you have a passion, a love for something, you share it with people and you share your love and you share your passion with people.”

The video cuts out when Smolyaninov finishes playing the song — so what happened then?

“People started cheering, and I was just, ‘Wow,’ and being a bit silly and the guy said, ‘Oh thank you’ and we just continued (on our way). But people put money in because this guy had a bucket!” she said, laughing. She left her tips in the bucket for Negrin.

Smolyaninov, originally from Ukraine, has been a teacher at Gray Academy in Tuxedo since 2012. After living and teaching in Israel, she, her husband and two daughters came to Canada in 2007. Her 13-year-old daughter is a student at Gray Academy, and her 23-year-old daughter is in the University of Manitoba’s faculty of education. Both daughters play the piano.

Smolyaninov is not the music teacher at Gray Academy, but music is in her teaching. She is the only teacher in the school who has a piano in her classroom.

“She has a heart of gold and golden hands,” said Joyce Kerr, the Gray Academy’s elementary principal. “She is unbelievable. We are so lucky to have her.”

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca