All month long at sundown people have been coming to the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Half Moon Bay to play and listen to a baby grand piano. Originally, it belonged to ElidaOetell. When her house was foreclosed, she had to leave the piano behind. The new owner, Christina Conklin, tried to get it tuned for her kids to play, but it was beyond repair. So she called Mauro Di Nucci. He calls himself Mauro Ffortissimo. He’s an artist, sculptor and musician, and he likes to make things out of pianos.
By the time the piano got to the field behind his house last Sunday, it had given two weeks of concerts on the bluff, taken a boat ride, been coated in parrafin and lamp oil, and sat encircled by yellow caution tape and fire extinguishers.
A crowd of locals, including ElidaOetell, came to hear the piano’s last song and watch it burn.
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