News for North Texas
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Colorful Fort Worth mural celebrates 60th anniversary of the Cliburn International Piano Competition

IMG_8912 (2).JPG Under bright sun, people sit in white chairs in front of a brightly painted wall that looks like a piano keyboard.
Bill Zeeble
/
KERA News
Piano fans assembled in Fort Worth’s near southside Sunday to witness the official unveiling of Austin muralist DAAS’ newest work. Called Chromesthesia, it was commissioned by the Cliburn Foundation to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Cliburn International Piano Competition The next contest starts in June.

The Cliburn Foundation commissioned Austin-based muralist DAAS to do his first Fort Worth piece. His murals can be found all over the world.

Mural artist DAAS – just one name – calls the work Chromesthesia. It’s a condition, DAAS said, “where some people - they see color when they hear a sound. You know, what a great way to take advantage of the vibrations that a piano makes, how strong they are, and how color can be generated from that in people's minds and visually.” 

The 49-year-old DAAS, who says he legally changed his name some 30 years ago, has painted murals for 15 to 20 years because he likes the large scale.

He “enjoys the impact that it makes in the immediate environment,” as well as how the “scale can inspire people, can inspire children.”

"It’s just so enormous and it’s overwhelming, visually,” DAAS continued.

The mural features a brightly painted piano keyboard and the inside of a grand piano. It occupies a wall off Main Street between Vickery Boulevard and Daggett Avenue. The next Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, starts June 2nd , after being postponed because of the pandemic.

Bill Zeeble has been a full-time reporter at KERA since 1992, covering everything from medicine to the Mavericks and education to environmental issues.