A piano with a two-foot cutaway hole stood alone on the mezzanine of MOMA, New York’s Museum of Modern Art. I asked a security guard what the piano was for — he replied, “For performances. Come back later.” My family and I wandered off to enjoy other exhibits, and later rushed back to the mezzanine when we saw a large crowd surrounding the piano.

There was a person standing INSIDE the piano. Right inside the hole.

She was playing the piano and walking around the open floor, rolling the instrument in wide arcs. Her body was bent forward at the waist, at a full ninety degree angle, and her hands were flying up and down at a breakneck pace.

Okay, an artist built this provocative piano. That’s interesting enough. But as we watched the pianist perform, we realized that she must transpose her left and right hands’ roles in each song. In other words, her left hand is playing the higher pitched notes, while her left hand is playing the bass.

It was a pretty amazing performance, and the difficulty level was readily apparent in the piece that she played (Tchaikovsky). Before the applause wore down, she swiftly ducked down out of the piano hole (think Maxwell Smart dropping down his secret telephone booth), and made her exit.

I’ve included several more images that we enjoyed during today’s visit.