Best of the Bay 2013: BEST RENEGADE RECITAL

Pub date October 15, 2013
SectionSpecial

And then one day in June, a piano appeared. Not a tiny Schroeder model, but a full-size, stand-up set of ivories, plopped on top of Bernal Hill with an open invitation attached for giggly renditions of “Chopsticks” and gorgeous, soul-stirring Chopin scores alike. Bernal Heights being the magical neighborhood it is, a full-on recital was planned and performed for a grinning crowd of over 200 very lucky folks. The Bernal Heights piano lineup of skilled musicians sent sassy jazz numbers and symphonic pleasures into the breeze and charmed the perching crowd, as the sun set over the city below. The piano may not be a permanent fixture on the Bernal bedrock — indeed, the instrument used for the recital was a replacement, hastily lugged up by the same start-up workers who donated the first, after it disappeared. (“One does not simply get rid of a piano,” one of the gifters wrote in a blog post. “[We] concocted a plan to bring it to a public place so that it could be enjoyed by many.”) All the more reason to hike to the top and play sweet, sweet songs for the city you love.

www.tynan.com/bernal