We've blogged videos before from Paul Barton, a piano instructor and performer based in Thailand who sometimes performs at elephant sanctuaries—and by that, I mean, he performs for the elephants. But this new video is the most amazing yet. He explains:
Musical hijinks with Peter the Elephant on a green piano. Peter discovers the piano (unlisted video). I was actually playing for Soi, a 5 year elephant, when Peter came by with his mahout on his regular evening trip to the river for a bath. Peter heard the music and made deviation from the mud road (behind the tree) to the piano. I suddenly felt something strange sucking the back of my head and had an unexpected duet partner. In another video he plays piano and my back as a drum. The mahout you can hear occasionally isn't giving commands in any way to Peter, rather voicing a tiny bit concern for the piano's survival.(thanks, Joe Sabia!)Elephant-lovers please rest-assured - all keys on modern pianos (such as this one) are made from synthetic plastic material and have been manufactured this way for some considerable time.
More videos: "A short Night Vision video with elephant Soi (Debussy and Bach)," and you can meet Peter and elephant friends at elephantstay.com in Ayutthaya, Thailand. Khwan makes a sculpture of Peter and his friend Omm Chakawan, and a nice moment between 2 elephant friends Peter and Omm (8:14).
