After rescue, Gaza's only grand piano makes public comeback

The only grand piano in the Gaza Strip was played in public for the first time in a decade, following a complicated international restoration effort to fix the instrument after it was nearly destroyed in an Israeli airstrike.

Some 300 fans attended the performance on Sunday, staring in awed silence as Japanese and local artists performed for them. For many, it was the first time they had ever heard a piano performed live.

"Playing this piano is feeling like playing history," said Japanese pianist Kaoru Imahigashi. "It's amazing. I felt the prayer of peace for many people."
Kaoru, the pianist, stroked the keys smoothly as opera singer Fujiko Hirai performed the Japanese folk song "Fantasy on Sakura Sakura."
"I liked how people interacted" with the artists, she said. "This encourages me to learn piano."
Ismail Daoud, a conductor who heads the school, said it's hard to bring pianos to Gaza because of their weight and their prices, but that his school "desperately needs them."