Community-made music will return to the Guilford Green once again this summer. For the second year, the Free Keys Project will place two pianos in the downtown area for residents to play and enjoy.

The Free Keys Project first debuted last year. Shoreline residents Carly Callahan and Greg Nobile started the project as a private initiative to place pianos in public spaces in the towns of Madison, Branford, and Guilford. Callahan previously said the project collected eight pianos that were painted by local artists before being sent out to the respective towns.

The project was considered a success last year so at a recent Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting, the board again approved placement of two pianos on the Green for this summer.

“For folks who may remember this is a program that was put on last year for the first time,” said First Selectman Matt Hoey. “The approval for this year just needed to be modified a little bit because there was some advertising that was on the piano, but that has since been dealt with.”

Hoey said when the pianos were placed last year—at least in Guilford—some of the instruments had commercial advertising on them, specifically for a Branford restaurant owned by Nobile.

The current plan is to place one piano in front of the Guilford Free Library and the other on the far side of the Green at the corner of Whitfield and Boston streets—same as last year. Sheet music is stored in the piano benches for community use and each piano comes with a cover in the event of rain. According to a post on the Free Keys CT Facebook page, the goal is to expand the project even further along the shoreline this summer.

“We are very excited to announce that Free Keys will be back again this summer!” the post reads. “The Piano Trail will extend all the way from New Haven to Madison and we are partnering with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra to present chamber music concerts at select piano sites.”

The pianos come at no cost to the town and the project carries its own insurance for the pianos. Hoey said the town is pleased to welcome this program back.

“I think this made for some interesting conversations,” he said. “The now governor of the State of Connecticut, when he was in town, actually stopped and played the piano.”

The pianos should start popping up on the Green in the coming weeks.