PLAYING FOR PEACE

With his grand piano Davide is providing moments of joy for weary refugees

- ROBYN LUCAS

IT’S an almost other-worldly sight: a man playing a gleaming grand piano under an iron-grey sky as refugees mill around in their hundreds, fleeing a conflict that has ripped their lives apart.

The pianist wears fingerless gloves, his fingers expertly skittering across the keys, and women and children stand and stare as the melody floats through the icy air.

This is the border between Ukraine and Poland, a place of desperation and uncertainty – and it’s the only place on Earth where Davide Martello wants to be right now. Davide, who’s been nicknamed “the peace pianist”, has a singular mission: to bring moments of joy and comfort to people going through unimaginable hardship.

He’s played his piano in some of the most troubled places in the world and is now staying at a hotel in Lviv near the Ukraine/Poland border. And it’s here YOU tracks him down after his haunting melodies and inspiring story once again started to make news headlines.

His runny nose and nagging cough are a result of playing outside all day in the freezing air but catching a cold is nothing compared to the suffering of millions, he says.

Davide (40) loaded his piano onto his trailer, hooked it to his old Peugeot and drove more than 17 hours from the Black Forest in Germany, where he lives, to the border to welcome Ukrainian refugees.

“You know, with a trailer you can’t drive that fast,” Davide, an Italian, tells us. “I think it’s very nice to welcome them with music. Like, ‘Hey, you’re safe now and you’re good, you made it.’

“I mean, those people come from a war zone. Most of them were in a bus and there was no music.”