‘Piano man' warms hearts of Ukrainian refugees arriving in Poland

Davide Martello, a German citizen, traveled from Germany to Korczowa, Poland, to help bring some joy to Ukrainian refugees fleeing a Russian invasion. His inspired playing brought some measure of comfort to those fleeing war in the cold weather this week.

Some of the Ukrainian refugees themselves sat down at the piano to play their own songs, with some singing along to the music. At one point, a woman who had recently crossed the border sat down at the piano and played a rendition of "We Are the Champions," the iconic 1977 Queen anthem. She was bundled in a heavy winter coat, but neither the cold nor the stress of fleeing war stopped her from playing a touching version of the famous song.

Temperatures in Korczowa were cold this week, but seasonable, with the high reaching 37 Fahrenheit on Thursday and 36 F on Friday.

This is not the first time that Martello has lugged his piano to areas reeling from violence: He brought his piano to Istanbul, Turkey, in 2013 when anti-government protestors clashed with police and he also set up his piano outside the Bataclan theatre in Paris after terrorists attacked the city in 2015.

And it wasn't the first time that music has been used to ease stress during a disaster, in fact, the same type of instrument was used this week in Australia, amid a different kind of disaster.

With his garage rapidly filling with water, one man's focus was not on evacuating, but music. He pulled up a chair and sat down to play his piano one final time, spinning a jovial tune as stray sports equipment and boxes floated across the room.

The video, taken by David Xie at his home in a suburb of Brisbane, shows Gianluca, the owner of the apartment unit he lives in, playing the piano as the unit continues to flood, according to reporting from Storyful.

"At about 6 a.m., Gianluca and the others woke us up and there was about 2 feet of water," Xie said. "Furniture was floating and the fridge was soon floating as well. We moved the piano bench upstairs and Gianluca figured, may as well give the piano a final send-off, pictured in the video."

While Gianluca was playing his piano, Brisbane was experiencing its worst flooding since at least 2011, with more than 2 feet of rain submerging much of the city and killing at least 10. Perhaps it is the power of nature that inspires people to play music in the face of disaster, just like these other five people did.

After historic and damaging tornadoes tore through Kentucky on Dec. 10, 2021, one homeowner whose house was torn apart was moved to play his piano, which was miraculously spared from the damage.

More than 50 people were killed by two long-track tornadoes that spun up in Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee that night, with the most impactful storm demolishing structures throughout the town of Mayfield and other areas in Kentucky.

Despite the roof over his head having been blown away, Jordan Baize, sat down to play a Christian hymn, "There's Something About That Name," according to reporting from The New York Times. Baize, who did not realize he was being recorded, was heartened by the positive response to his music.

"In these times, whether folks all around the world have suffered a tornado this past weekend or not, we all are facing storms of some kind," said Mr. Baize, an accountant and consultant. "That little bit of peace and perspective that I was dealing with, in what I thought was a personal, private moment, I think has spoken to people across the world."

Following the widespread devastation and flooding wrought by Hurricane Harvey, which flooded more than 130,000 properties in Houston alone when it made landfall in 2017, one man returned home to play his piano in a triumphant display of resistance.

Aric Harding, a father of seven, returned back to his property to grab some of his kids' belongings and found himself moved to play and filmed himself playing the piano to prove to his family that it still worked.

"For us, it's a piece of music being this universal language for everyone. It's always been a big part of my life. My family's always been very musical," he told ABC Houston station KTRK-TV. "From the moment we get up in the morning to the moment we go to sleep, we've got music going on in our house."

The piano, which was damaged by the floodwaters, was replaced with the help of Grammy-nominated singer Vanessa Carlton, according to reporting from ABC News.

"It's a little piece of normal coming back," he said of getting the new piano.

As Hurricane Ida was bearing down on New Orleans in August as a Category 4 storm, a lone trumpeter stood on the streets of New Orleans and blared his horn.

The jazzy tune stood in contrast to the dismal weather conditions, but shows that even in the worst conditions, the music never stops on Bourbon Street.

As Niel Jon Salcedo's home flooded during powerful Super Typhoon Rai, he took the time to play a tune even as the water was rising up to his knees. Rai struck the Philippines in Dec. 2021 and killed over 400 people according to reporting from The New York Post.

As he plays "River Flows In You," an ironic choice of song given the situation, the water on the floor ripples up and down and you can hear the sound of more water rushing into the home.

"My 20-plus-year-old piano," Salcedo wrote in a post on Facebook. "Probably my last time playing this piano before it gets junked." The post on Facebook went viral, garnering nearly one million views.

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