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Davide Martello: ‘My friends were saying – don’t go, there are still terrorists on the streets’ Davide Martello: ‘My friends were saying – don’t go, there are still terrorists on the streets’
(17 days later)
Davide Martello’s first thought when news came through of the terrorist siege at the Bataclan theatre in Paris was: this is an attack on music. His second thought was an instinct really: I have to take my piano there and play.Davide Martello’s first thought when news came through of the terrorist siege at the Bataclan theatre in Paris was: this is an attack on music. His second thought was an instinct really: I have to take my piano there and play.
I put the Bataclan theatre into the GPS and I drove 12 hours and I arrived in the late morning. The city was dead.I put the Bataclan theatre into the GPS and I drove 12 hours and I arrived in the late morning. The city was dead.
Martello was having these thoughts in an Irish pub in his hometown of Konstanz in Germany where he was watching the France v Germany football match on TV with friends. He heard the explosions that signalled the suicide attacks outside the football stadium and then, as the television pictures moved from the football to the horrific scenes at the Bataclan, he left the bar, hooked up the trailer containing his baby grand piano, and drove through the night to Paris.Martello was having these thoughts in an Irish pub in his hometown of Konstanz in Germany where he was watching the France v Germany football match on TV with friends. He heard the explosions that signalled the suicide attacks outside the football stadium and then, as the television pictures moved from the football to the horrific scenes at the Bataclan, he left the bar, hooked up the trailer containing his baby grand piano, and drove through the night to Paris.
“It was 10pm when I set off,” he says. “My friends were saying: ‘No, don’t go, it is still dangerous, there are terrorists on the streets,’ but I felt I had no option. I put the Bataclan theatre into the GPS and I drove 12 hours and I arrived in the late morning. The city was dead. Everyone was inside. Just police on the streets. As I got the piano out of the trailer I noticed there was blood on the pavement. Running down the pavement.“It was 10pm when I set off,” he says. “My friends were saying: ‘No, don’t go, it is still dangerous, there are terrorists on the streets,’ but I felt I had no option. I put the Bataclan theatre into the GPS and I drove 12 hours and I arrived in the late morning. The city was dead. Everyone was inside. Just police on the streets. As I got the piano out of the trailer I noticed there was blood on the pavement. Running down the pavement.
“I had hoped to play a lot but in the end I just played this one song. I am pretty loud, so a few people started to gather around. I played Imagine, that is all I could play. This blood was on my mind. I was too emotional to play another song so then I put the piano back in the trailer and went back to Germany.”“I had hoped to play a lot but in the end I just played this one song. I am pretty loud, so a few people started to gather around. I played Imagine, that is all I could play. This blood was on my mind. I was too emotional to play another song so then I put the piano back in the trailer and went back to Germany.”
By the time Martello got home, clips of his spontaneous performance were trending on social media – the “peace pianist” was in demand from news organisations around the world. Martello explains that his hope was that other musicians would follow his example and bring music back to the streets of Paris; when that did not happen in the days that followed he returned to the city and gave impromptu performances of John Lennon’s peace anthem at each of the sites of the terrorist attacks. A wonderful photograph of him pulling his piano behind a bicycle became symbolic of the city’s defiance and spirit.By the time Martello got home, clips of his spontaneous performance were trending on social media – the “peace pianist” was in demand from news organisations around the world. Martello explains that his hope was that other musicians would follow his example and bring music back to the streets of Paris; when that did not happen in the days that followed he returned to the city and gave impromptu performances of John Lennon’s peace anthem at each of the sites of the terrorist attacks. A wonderful photograph of him pulling his piano behind a bicycle became symbolic of the city’s defiance and spirit.
Martello, a 34-year-old former hairdresser, recalled some of this to me earlier this month in London. He is a hard man to track down. The Paris performances had been a diversion from his main artistic project, a crowdfunded effort to play his piano in each of the world’s capitals, spreading a singular message of shared humanity. I caught up with him en route to Trafalgar Square. He had driven down from Glasgow that afternoon, having played the previous day in Liverpool, at the Beatles memorial, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of Lennon’s death. He had a documentary crew following his progress and he was booked on the last ferry to Dunkirk. Martello, a 34-year-old former hairdresser, recalled some of this to me earlier this month in London. He is a hard man to track down. The Paris performances had been a diversion from his main artistic project, a crowdfunded effort to play his piano in each of the world’s capitals, spreading a singular message of shared humanity. I caught up with him en route to Trafalgar Square. He had driven down from Glasgow that afternoon, having played the previous day in Liverpool, at the Beatles memorial, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of Lennon’s death. He had a documentary crew following his progress and he was booked on the last ferry to Dunkirk.
Troubadouring under the name Klavierkunst, Martello has been on the road in this way for most of the past five years. His car battery charges his piano’s speakers, he explains. At Christmas 2012 he played in Afghanistan, in Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz. He first gained news attention when he took his piano to the centre of the Taksim Square protests in Istanbul the following year and played for 14 hours to an audience of thousands. He subsequently travelled to the Euromaidan protests in Kiev and the near-civil war in Donetsk in April 2014. Troubadouring under the name Klavierkunst, Martello has been on the road in this way for most of the past five years. His car battery charges his piano’s speakers, he explains. At Christmas 2012 he played in Afghanistan, in Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz. He first gained news attention when he took his piano to the centre of the Taksim Square protests in Istanbul the following year and played for 14 hours to an audience of thousands. He subsequently travelled to the Euromaidan protests in Kiev and the near-civil war in Donetsk in April 2014.
From the moment he gave up his hairdressing job to concentrate on music, he says, “the idea was to try to play in difficult places. When I went to Taksim Square I was nervous, a little. The police were this side and the protestors were the other side and I was in the middle. I was unpacking my piano and they were throwing stones and everything. But when I took the piano on the square the thing became calmer, people stopped to listen. It was a proof for me that I could maybe make a difference.”From the moment he gave up his hairdressing job to concentrate on music, he says, “the idea was to try to play in difficult places. When I went to Taksim Square I was nervous, a little. The police were this side and the protestors were the other side and I was in the middle. I was unpacking my piano and they were throwing stones and everything. But when I took the piano on the square the thing became calmer, people stopped to listen. It was a proof for me that I could maybe make a difference.”
It was in some ways the fulfilment of an ambition that had formed for Martello when he was a child: “I remember when I was like 12, 13, I was on holiday in Sicily with my dad driving. I was in the back listening to my Walkman, piano music from Liszt. We were driving through this quite dry, desert kind of landscape and I just began imagining bringing the piano in the middle of the desert. To take music to these dry places. This was when I think it began.”It was in some ways the fulfilment of an ambition that had formed for Martello when he was a child: “I remember when I was like 12, 13, I was on holiday in Sicily with my dad driving. I was in the back listening to my Walkman, piano music from Liszt. We were driving through this quite dry, desert kind of landscape and I just began imagining bringing the piano in the middle of the desert. To take music to these dry places. This was when I think it began.”
Martello has played in 36 capitals. Next year he will take his trailer and piano to Mexico and try to play in all the capitals of central America. John Lennon is one inspiration, but he also plays his own music, improvising songs that seem appropriate to where he is.Martello has played in 36 capitals. Next year he will take his trailer and piano to Mexico and try to play in all the capitals of central America. John Lennon is one inspiration, but he also plays his own music, improvising songs that seem appropriate to where he is.
“In America people will always offer you a place to stay,” he says, “in Europe not so much. Everywhere around the world you get some drunks sometimes smashing on the keys. Crazy people. But mostly people like to listen. I am always writing music and I am always driving. I think in the car, it is my refuge. I don’t listen to the radio.”“In America people will always offer you a place to stay,” he says, “in Europe not so much. Everywhere around the world you get some drunks sometimes smashing on the keys. Crazy people. But mostly people like to listen. I am always writing music and I am always driving. I think in the car, it is my refuge. I don’t listen to the radio.”
In the terrible event of another atrocity like Paris, I say, will he feel obliged to go and play again? “I try to find a balance,” he says. “I am not going to be a full-time peace pianist. I want other people to do it, to follow the idea. To relax the tension in places, to calm things down.”In the terrible event of another atrocity like Paris, I say, will he feel obliged to go and play again? “I try to find a balance,” he says. “I am not going to be a full-time peace pianist. I want other people to do it, to follow the idea. To relax the tension in places, to calm things down.”
Martello describes himself as without politics: if he is evangelical about anything it is music. “If you don’t do anything in the streets the city quickly dies,” he says. “Street performers are very important for the environment. Politicians don’t think about it much maybe. But I think street performers are a very good sign of the health of a city. They show that the city is alive.”Martello describes himself as without politics: if he is evangelical about anything it is music. “If you don’t do anything in the streets the city quickly dies,” he says. “Street performers are very important for the environment. Politicians don’t think about it much maybe. But I think street performers are a very good sign of the health of a city. They show that the city is alive.”