The famous Motown piano will return with a flourish at a $10,000 per-person charity event with Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. and Paul McCartney on Sept. 18 in New York City, Gary Graff reports in the Oakland Press.
The 1877 Steinway grand piano was acquired in 1967 and used in Motown's Studio B before being moved to the company's Hitsville, USA headquarters on West Grand Boulevard.
When McCartney toured the museum prior to his July 24, 2011, performance at Comerica Park and saw the piano's deteriorating condition, he pledged to pay for it to be restored at the Steinway & Sons headquarters in New York, where its strings, hammers and other parts were replaced.
The removed components will be exhibited at the Motown Museum upon the piano's return there in the late fall. An announcement says the piano -- played over the years by Marvin Gaye, Steve Wonder, the Funk Brother's Earl Van Dyke and many others -- will be used for "future performance and educational events."
McCartney and Gordy will both play the piano at the September fundraiser, which will be held at Steinway Hall, with proceeds going to the museum.
