LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – On Tuesday, Las Vegas musician Danny Kean loaded up his traveling piano and his dog and took his talents to UNLV, playing the piano for students and staff at the memorial site on campus honoring the lives lost in the shooting on campus.
“The traveling piano’s been bringing the beat to the street for coming on 38 years. I worked as pro for 20 years out of Philadelphia,” said Kean.
Kean played piano professionally for 20 years, but now he plays for free to help people heal after tragedies like this, including other school shootings.
“I have a close connection with gun violence. I feel verily strongly about it,” Keab said. “And I think it’s very important to respond to it so anytime in opportunity arises for me to participate in it in a positive way to show some validation and worth for humanity, I do that.”
“It’s an inspiration. It’s a somber feeling around the campus, but let’s all try to just be uplifted right now. We’re never going to forget the people and the lives taken, we’re not going to forget that. It’s just time to heal your own heart in your own little way, and I did a little of that just now playing his piano,” said Robert Bird, a UNLV mailroom employee who was on campus during the shooting.
“What I’d like to do is engage with people and show them and tell them that they’re loved and have them get up on the piano and create a musical note for themselves and to feel empowered through that,” said Kean.
“He’s a hero to me. He’s an absolute hero, and he’s like a faith healer,” said Bird.
Bird recalled the day of the shooting: “I was here when it happened. I had just delivered mail, and I was on my way back to the mail center… I ran down the hall, and I told everybody lock the doors, and we were just in lockdown for a while.”
“I’m not quite over it yet,” he added, “but driving around campus, seeing people’s attitudes, people starting to cheer up and that sort of thing. It gives me a good feeling. Life goes on, and UNLV will always be here.”
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