On April 1st, 2005, eco-artist/philosopher Bob Johnson and I collaborated on staging a grand piano float off the backchannel docks at the Pittsburgh Rowing Association on the Allegheny River. The impetus for this performance was yet another adventurous collaboration with Bob, as well as a gallery exhibition at Chatham College with artist Paul Krainak entitled Villa-Lobos and Niemeyer.

The story behind Riverpiano is as follows: In the summer of 1959, Heitor Villa-Lobos fell asleep on his sofa while smoking a cigar. In the several minutes it took for the cigar to start a fire on the rug where it fell out of his hand, Villa-Lobos dreamt that he was aquaplaning up the Rio Negro through the jungle seated at his beloved 9’ Hamburg Steinway grand piano. He listened intently to the strange bird sounds all around him and responded with a kind of music reaching far beyond anything he’d ever played before. So intense was his focus, that his Steinway suddenly burst into flames causing Villa-Lobos to rise birdward into the sky. As he gazed down from high above, the piano gradually morphed into the shape of Brazil itself, now prophetically engulfed in flames. That’s when the maid rushed into the study to choke the fire with a wet blanket. As if nothing had happened, Villa-Lobos awoke and went to his piano in a poignant, if futile, attempt to recreate the music in the dream. He died peacefully at home three months later.