Piano Day Pittsburgh tickles the ivories, and listeners' imaginations, with pair of 10th anniversary events

No, that was not your imagination.

Plenty of Parkway East motorists, even through the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, were surprised to see a flatbed truck rolling by with someone playing a piano on top.

“I probably won’t do that again, because I did not feel as safe as maybe I expected to,” performer Guy Russo said about his participation in an Aug. 8 odyssey that started and concluded at a Penn Hills storage facility.

“It felt like we were going about 600 miles per hour. I found out we topped out at 40,” he said. “But the delight of the drivers seeing what was happening was well worth it.”

The occasion was the first of two events celebrating the 10th anniversary of Piano Day Pittsburgh, which has the goal of showcasing love for the instrument and using it to build a sense of community, said founder Peter Stumpf.

“We put 50-some miles on the trailer running it around the city and had about 20 different players,” the Baldwin Borough resident said.

The second 2025 Piano Day event is scheduled from noon to 6 p.m. Sept. 7 at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Hall.

“They’re graciously opening up their garden, and they’re going to have their fountain on and some lighting,” Stumpf said. “There are probably going to be, over the course of the day, about a hundred players, from schoolchildren to very professional.”

Among the performers of note he mentioned are jazz pianist David Gurwin, instructor Luis Hernandez and technician Jimmy Liu.

The mobile event launched from Stumpf Moving & Storage — Peter is no relation — on Purity Road, an 89-year-old company that specializes in pianos. Serving as the driver was Randy Mangus, a piano technician based in Wheeling, W.Va.

“He’s the one who really makes all this happen. He has the vehicle. He has the trailer and the equipment and the experience. And he’s fearless,” Stumpf said. “When we proposed doing something like this, he was always in. He has the same sort of love for the instrument that I do.”

Mangus, Russo and Stumpf took care of securing the instrument — a 7-foot semi-concert Steinway, courtesy of Fort Pitt Piano in the Strip District — to the flatbed, and Russo already was playing as the truck rolled out of the parking lot.

“The first time we mounted a piano onto a flatbed trailer, no one had seen it done before with a moving truck, and no one was totally sure if it was feasible or safe,” he said. “But we were ready to go for it.”

From its beginning in 2016, Piano Day Pittsburgh often features a distinctive performance approach.

“A few years ago, we put a piano on a pontoon and were playing it out on the river,” Stumpf said. “The people who got to see that were water skiers and people on the boats.”

By comparison, the Heinz Hall event is open to everyone, free of charge. Featured will be a 9-foot concert Steinway, the same type of model the prestigious venue uses on its concert stage.

Stumpf serves as Heinz’s stage piano technician. His main job is at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music, servicing and overseeing the inventory of more than 80 instruments, and he has trained a number of fledgling technicians through the school’s advanced music studies and independent study programs.

In fact, Russo was one of his CMU students.

“He was my mentor, and we have maintained a very close relationship over the years,” Russo said.

And he jumped right on board when Stumpf came up with the idea for Piano Day Pittsburgh.

“I find the piano to be kind of a lifelong friend. It’s gotten me through some tough times in my life,” Stumpf said. “The piano always just seems to match my mood. If I’m angry about something, I can go let the piano have it. I think that does a whole lot for my mental health.”

Russo, a Sewickley Academy graduate who lives on the North Side, is an accomplished guitarist, singer and songwriter. His real passion, though, would seem to be for the 88 keys.

“The versatility of it, the range of it, just the beauty of the sound: I never get sick of the piano. I spend all day, every day, with my hands on pianos, and I go home and want to play my home,” he said. “I love the wood and felt and steel all working together to create this magical sound.”

He and his fellow aficionados want to continue sharing their enthusiasm through Piano Day Pittsburgh.

“We are not even a nonprofit organization. We are just strictly an all-volunteer group of people who do this,” Stumpf said. “We just keep dreaming and coming up with ways to use the piano, and hopefully we can keep moving forward with it.”

For details, visit pianoburgh.com/piano-day.