Water piano display in Cambridge piques community interest

An unusual front lawn water feature is turning heads in a Cambridge neighbourhood.

Mark Cann-Dorey’s piano with rushing water has people of all ages and interests regularly stopping by his home to take in the display.

“If we come out here on a weekend to do gardening or such, we could be out here all day talking to people,” said Cann-Dorey. “They ask about it and they all have positive comments to make about how creative it is.”

According to Cann-Dorey, his interior design background sparked the drive for him to do something imaginative for the neighbourhood to enjoy.

“I had seen a picture in a newspaper many years ago of a piano in a garden and that picture stuck with me. It’s got to be about 18 years [ago] now,” he said.

A front lawn water feature seen in Cambridge on Sept. 14. (Dave Pettitt/CTV Kitchener)

The display also draws inspiration from a Supertramp album cover. The British band’s song ‘Even in the Quietest Moments’ featured a piano on a mountain.

“That song and the flowing of water just came together,” explained Cann-Dorey. “When people look at the piano and they know that saying, it narrows them down to just a moment in time.”

The piano now sits on his lawn at the corner of Cambridge and Bond streets but it had quite the journey to get there.

“It was built in Wales in 1932. The woman I got it from, she had taught her kids how to play piano. It sat in their living room for many years. I don’t know the history before that and how it came to Canada but it is a true baby grand piano in every sense of the word,” Cann-Dorey said.

“This is a way for me to show repurposing. The piano, although it doesn’t play music anymore, it entertains and that makes me feel good.”