The completed works will then be sold at auction, with the proceeds benefitting the partner art organizations in equal measure. The first artistic pairing is between visual artist Mark Bradford and Steinway Artist Robert Glasper. Bradford’s Steinway Model M, transformed with paper and bleach to recall his time spent working at his mother’s salon as a hairdresser, is titled “Apollo.” Glasper’s four-movement suite for Apollo, recorded on Spirio, is “Still Shining.” “Apollo/Still Shining,” will be presented for auction during Christie’s Post War & Contemporary day sale being held on May 11, 2016 in New York.

Steinway & Sons CEO Michael Sweeney noted that “so many of the artists that we work with today are pushing boundaries and defying easy classification.... We find classical artists playing jazz and jazz artists dipping into popular music. We see visual artists creating performances and composers creating visual art. The only descriptor that seems relevant anymore is ‘Artist,’ and that's the best description for Mark and Robert. It was our pleasure to introduce them and to facilitate their collaboration.”

“The only descriptor that seems relevant anymore is ‘Artist.’ ”

Mark Bradford's “Apollo” is a representation of artistic beauty inspired by an ever-changing social landscape. Bradford elaborates: "My use of paper and bleach in the work originates from my time working as a hairdresser at my mother's salon in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, where I would take end papers and soak them in bleach to dye clients' hair. I liked the end papers. I liked the social fabric they represented. Here, I am interested in the pattern of flux created by this bleaching effect.”