Sunset Piano is a collaboration of two multi-disciplinary artists, promoting piano culture and other good things in an increasingly complex world.

Mauro ffortissimo is a painter, sculptor, musician and poet, who brought the first Sunset Piano to the bluffs near his home in Half Moon Bay on a foggy night in February of 2013. For his personal website, including photos of his artwork, click here.

Dean Mermell is a filmmaker, musician, artist, and writer. He co-founded Sunset Piano with Mauro in 2013, and is creator of the documentary film Twelve Pianos. He co-produces the Flower Piano event each year in San Francisco, and runs a small post-production studio called Storyfarm. More here

The Sunset Piano Story

It’s a unique partnership, and we both bring something to the table. Our mutual friend, artist Pepe Ozan (sadly deceased), introduced us some time before Mauro’s first piano on the bluffs in Half Moon Bay in February of 2013. I remember Pepe saying, with a very meaningful look, "you two should know each other." We were both pianists and artists in different media, but there was probably something more to it.

Soon after the first piano on the bluffs, Mauro told me about this idea he had to put pianos on the coast in select locations. We crowdfunded both the piano project and the film I started to make about it which would eventually become Twelve Pianos. And that’s when Mauro and I formed Sunset Piano, an artistic partnership based on placing extremely heavy musical instruments in unexpected places. 

We began working with an influential partner in the mayor’s office in San Francisco (the amazing Ellyn Parker) who helped us bring the project to the streets of the city, where we rolled pianos into underserved neighborhoods. There were some wild shenanigans that happened during that time, some of them not strictly legal, as documented in the film.

Then in 2015 we approached SF Recreation and Parks about “hiding” some pianos in Golden Gate Park. It wasn’t a very well thought out idea, but to their credit, they resonated with it, and brought in the Botanical Garden folks about possibly doing something for their 75th anniversary. Flower Piano is what came out of that collaboration, and years later, continues to be one of the city’s most beloved events.

For Flower Piano 2022, we premiered a new work we commissioned by composer Benjamin Gribble called Fall and Fly for Twelve Pianos. Stanford Symphony director Paul Phillips conducted this epic 25 minute musical juggernaut of twelve pianos arranged in an arc, for about 1000 people. A film will be released of this performance soon.

We hope to bring pianos to other locations throughout California and beyond., and to explore new musical collaborations with like-minded partners. Mauro and I share an artistic vision, but we’re also both very practical people who like to figure out how to get things done. It’s about providing a space for wonder to happen. We need more wonder, and that seems to be the kind of the business we’re in.

Dean Mermell & Mauro ffortissimo

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