Davide Martello, also known as ''Klavierkunst'' (born 1 November 1981 in

Lörrach Lörrach () is a town in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss borders. It is the capital of the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg. It is the home of a number of large employers, including t ...

in the southwest of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

), is a German

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

of Italian descent. He was raised in

Tuningen Tuningen is a Gemeinde (municipality) located in the Schwarzwald-Baar district in the middle of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The municipality belongs to the administrative authority (''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'') of Villingen-Schwenningen. Geogr ...

, between the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

and the Swabian Jura. He is known for travelling around conflict zones to play his

baby grand piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, which he tows behind his bicycle using a powered trailer. Martello has been recognised by the European parliament for his "outstanding contribution to European cooperation and the promotion of common values". According to his website his aim is to play in every capital of the world.

Performances

Over Christmas 2012 he played in Afghanistan, for the soldiers in Mazar-i-Sharif, Kunduz and Termez (Uzbekistan). During the

Gezi Park protests A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began on 28 May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park. The protests were sparked by outrage at the violent eviction of a sit-in at the park prote ...

, in the evening of 12 June 2013, a concert was held in

Taksim Square Taksim Square ( tr, Taksim Meydanı, ), situated in Beyoğlu in the European part of Istanbul, Turkey, is a major tourist and leisure district famed for its restaurants, shops, and hotels. It is considered the heart of modern Istanbul, with the c ...

to an audience of thousands, centered on a 14-hour-long piano recital on a

grand piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

by Martello, on a world tour, on a piano he had built himself. The evening proceeded peacefully without police intervention, though the following day the police confiscated the piano. He also performed at the Maidan revolution in Kiev and the civil war in Donetsk in April 2014. In 2015 he performed at the sites of the

January 2015 Île-de-France attacks From 7 to 9 January 2015, terrorist attacks occurred across the Île-de-France region, particularly in Paris. Three attackers killed a total of 17 in four shooting attacks, and police then killed the three assailants. The attacks also wounded 22 ...

. Later that year in the aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks, on 14 November 2015, Martello rode his grand piano by bike to the Bataclan theatre (the venue where 89 people were killed in a terror attack) and started playing "

Imagine Imagine may refer to: * Imagination Music Albums * ''Imagine'' (Armin van Buuren album), 2008 * ''Imagine'' (Eva Cassidy album), 2002 * ''Imagine'' (Janice Vidal album), 2012 * ''Imagine'' (John Lennon album), 1971 ** ''Imagine: John Lennon' ...

" from

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

in tribute to the victims of the Paris attacks for a crowd gathered outside the hall. On 6 October 2018 Martello performed at the "" demonstration against the cutting of the

Hambach Forest Hambach Forest (german: Hambacher Wald, Hambacher Forst (), Bürgewald, Die Bürge) is an ancient forest located near in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, between Cologne and Aachen. It was planned to be cleared as part of the Hambach ...

to extend the

Hambach open pit mine The Tagebau Hambach is a large open-pit coal mine (german: Tagebau) in Niederzier and Elsdorf, North Rhine–Westphalia, Germany. It is operated by RWE and used for mining lignite. The mine is on the site of the ancient Hambach Forest, whi ...

in Germany. In March 2019, on the way to play at a pier in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, Martello wrecked his piano on a hill on Bay Street, but was able to mend it sufficiently to play as planned. In June 2020, he played in Minneapolis, Minnesota during protests after the murder of George Floyd. In March 2022, he played at the Ukrainian-Polish border with refugees from the Russian invasion.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Martello, Davide German pianists 1981 births People from Lörrach Living people 21st-century pianists