Anne Zimmerman reports the nutmeg-colored Steinway upright John Lennon used to compose Imagine is currently on tour. Pictured above at the Virginia Tech campus where 32 students tragically lost their lives last fall, the piano has visited the sites of tragic events all over the country. Some are as famous as the Virginia Tech campus, a museum that lies in the wake of the carnage left by hurricane Katrina, and the site of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Others, such as private funerals, a gallery exhibit of war photography, a prison on execution eve, and a small town in Texas where an unsolved murder occurred more than 50 years ago, have also been visited by the piano.The piano has received a warm welcome and much fanfare on most of its stops. People tend to want to be photographed alongside it, play Imagine on it's worn keys, or touch cigarette burns left by Lennon. Other locales, Columbine High School in Colorado for example, have refused admittance to the instrument.
British pop singer George Michael and his longtime partner, Kenny Goss, a Dallas gallery owner, are the force behind the tour, as well as the proud owners of the piano. The piano is currently housed in their Dallas home and will resume its tour later this year.
Link: peace protest
