BELMAR — The borough will dedicate its new, all-weather digital piano in Pyanoe Plaza to Belmar native David Sancious, a founding member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, and his mother, Stelma Sancious, with a ceremony and afternoon celebration of music on Saturday, May 3 from 2 to 4 p.m.
The event, to take place at the plaza at Ninth Avenue and Main Street, will be free and open to the public. The dedication will be followed by a live musical performance by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee David Sancious with special guests Tommy LaBella on saxophone and Ernest Carter on drums.
The borough mayor and council will join the Belmar Arts Center (BAC) for the dedication of the piano in honor of the Sancious family.
“This piano will be a joyful and functional monument to all the Sancious family has done for Belmar and the greater, music-loving world,” Mayor Gerald Buccafusco stated in a press release. “We are honored that David will perform for all of us at the dedication ceremony. The piano will be a lasting symbol of the borough’s support for the arts and its appreciation of local history.”
The Piano 4 Pyanoe Plaza project, which brought the new weatherproof concrete piano to the borough’s Pyanoe Plaza, was organized by the BAC and honors David Sancious, who grew up in Belmar and graduated from Belmar Elementary School before joining the E Street Band in the early 1970s.
“David Sancious, a Belmar native, is a founding member of E Street Band, known for his groundbreaking keyboard work and genre-defying compositions that span rock, jazz, classical and fusion,” states the release. “His storied career includes collaborations with icons such as Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Eric Clapton, Santana and Stanley Clarke. In 2014, Sancious was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, honoring his pivotal role in shaping the sound of modern rock.”
The project also honors David’s mother, Stelma Sancious, because Springsteen and his bandmates rehearsed at Stelma’s house, and the band was named after the street on which the Sancious family lived and hosted band practice. The press release states that Stelma “was a beloved educator who helped many people in the area improve their lives by helping them achieve their goals in higher education.”
The project began as a way for the BAC to commemorate Belmar’s 150th anniversary in 2022 and was the idea of resident Kevin Maypother. After grassroots fundraising efforts brought in over $50,000, a weatherproof concrete piano, made by Cadenza Pianos in Israel, was delivered to the plaza at the end of May in 2024. But that original piano arrived damaged, and was later swapped for the current piano on Aug. 1 that year.
“We are proud to dedicate this piano to David Sancious – an artist whose music transcends genres and generations alike. This instrument, now a permanent part of our community, stands as a symbol of creative freedom, unity, and the power of expression,” stated Wendy Green, BAC board of trustees chair. “Thanks to the generosity of the Belmar community and beyond, this project became a reality. May this piano inspire the next generation of musicians.”
The borough held a preview show to celebrate the installation of the instrument last November, when it welcomed a trio of local musicians – Pat Roddy on guitar and vocals, with John Scariappa on piano and LaBella on conga, soprano saxophone and tenor saxophone – who braved the afternoon’s stormy weather for a small musical set with the new piano as its spotlight.
Since then, the concrete digital piano has been activated and is available for visitors to use during the day.
“The outdoor piano, located in Pyanoe Plaza, has been a newly welcomed community instrument – free for anyone to play and enjoy,” the press release states.
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