About Big Piano
Big Piano® is an icon of our time
Arguably the most famous piano due to its memorable scene in the Tom Hanks movie "BIG" (1988), “The Walking Piano” or “Big Piano” was created by Remo Saraceni and first installed in the toy store FAO Schwarz in New York City in 1982. Saraceni saw the oversized synthesizer as a merging of dance, music and play, with the player using their feet to make music. There have been versions of the piano installed in museums, children’s hospitals and other public spaces all over the world.
The inventor of the Big Piano®
Remo Saraceni is an Italian-born world renowned artist, engineer, and lighting designer. He is best known for inventing the Walking Piano (Big Piano) that became a hallmark in the major motion picture Big (1988), starring Tom Hanks. The Big Piano ™ is just one of Remo's many interactive creations that connect the imagination of childhood with the technology of the future
Remo Saraceni is a Philadelphia based artist, designer, creator of interactive exhibits worldwide
Within the United States, Remo Saraceni has played an integral part in the conceptualization, development and creation of the Kansas City Children's Mercy Hospital. Larger works include the Miami Children's Museum, the Kodak pavilion, Orlando; Epcot, Florida. Within South America alone, Remo Saraceni has designed unique exhibits for the following Museums: Papalote Museo de los Niños Mexico City, Mexico and the Museo de los Niños, Bogota, Columbia, Museo de los Niños Venezuela for which it is one of the founders and a new Museum of Ciencia Y Arte in Panama. He has been commissioned to create museum exhibits relating to subjects a varied as International Telecommunications to Biological Sciences and DNA as the fabric of life. Being mindful of the individual characteristics of each site and project, Remo Saraceni is able to provide a unique perspective that is artistic, one of a kind and always captivating. A blend of science, technology and Art are the basis of any work, which is produced.
Please visit www.remosaraceniartist.com for more information about Remo
Big Piano Become a star
The Story
The story of the Big Piano® , also known as the Walking Piano, is the tale of a great invention that changed the scale of fun in revolutionary ways. The Big Piano was unveiled in 1982 in Saraceni’s imaginative interactive studio, where state-of-the-art technology fueled limitless artistic creativity and imaginative science.In 1983 The Big Piano received national recognition when it was featured with its inventor in major newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. Remo Saraceni and his philosophy of human interaction with technology became increasingly interesting to the public and the Big Piano began to be more widely recognized.This publicity led a manager from the toy company, FAO Schwarz, to visit Saraceni in his Brandywine studio in Philadelphia. FAO Schwarz immediately placed an order for a series of giant pianos and provided Remo with a showroom inside the FAO Schwarz flagship store on Fifth Avenue. Remo accompanied his invention to FAO Schwarz in New York, showing off the interactive toys that he had produced.One day Anne Spielberg and Gary Ross, who had just started writing the story of “Big”, stopped by the FAO Schwarz store on Fifth Avenue. Saraceni was there marketing the one and a half octave version of the Big Piano. When Spielberg and Ross saw it they were instantly impressed and thought it perfect for a pivotal scene in the movie.
Big Piano was featured in one of the film’s key scenes, when the characters played by Robert Loggia and Tom Hanks meet. The Big Piano instantly became iconic. The giant keyboard became a star of “Big”, alongside Tom Hanks. People magazine referred to it as an “icon” in the film. .
Big Piano® is an Icon of our time. Invented in 1982, six years before the movie "BIG"..
WATCH THE STORY OF THE INVENTION OF THE BIG PIANO®