‘ Surround sounds piano QNS’

Mortal hearts

November 16-23, 2025

Surround Sounds Piano_QNS is a Sohmer piano (manufactured in Queens) that has been retrofitted and reprogrammed so each of its 88 keys plays a field recording or sample while triggering a projection. The recordings were collected from a wide variety of sources throughout Queens, from the sound of a busy restaurant in Ridgewood, to the roar of the elevated train in Woodside, to rain on Houdini’s grave in Glendale.
 
This new instrument is one for the entire community to play. To find connections between both familiar sounds and new and surprising ones. The results are sometimes beautiful, sometimes cacophonous, and sometimes a little messy – like Queens itself.
 
Mortal Hearts is an arts collective that aims to combine sound and visual to create conceptual and immersive art pieces. Its core members, Daniel Giachetti and Arthur Fleischmann, have been making various sounds together since they were kids living in their parents’ houses a few blocks away from each other.