Once upon a time, Donald Gould was an everyday kind of American with a musical gift. He had learned how to play his beloved clarinet as a child and very much enjoyed performing as part of the U.S. Marine Corps band during his enlistment. “My music took me around the world before I was 21,” he told WOOD-TV. A musical savant of sorts, Gould’s family has said he was always musically gifted, able to pick up nearly any instrument and pick out a tune by ear.
After being honorably discharged from the U.S. military and returning to his home stomping grounds of southern Michigan, Gould enrolled at Spring Arbor University to pursue a degree in music teaching. “I took music theory and ear training, and I had to learn how to play every instrument from the piccolo down to the tuba,” he told WWSB-TV. “I can write parts like a handbook.” Financial burdens caused Gould to drop out of college after his third year, three credits shy of his degree.
The timeline and order of issues are a bit fuzzy. We know alcohol and pill abuse is involved, we do not know definitively what or when Donald Gould lost control of his own life. We do know substance abuse set Gould on a slow, downward spiral where he literally lost it all; one piece of his Life at a time.
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After quitting college, the former (by legal standards) Marine worked odd jobs here and there while starting a family. He’d married and he and his wife were the proud parents of a little boy, Donny. Donald Gould and his wife became so dysfunctional in their addiction, Social Services showed up one day in 1998 and took three-year-old Donny out of the Gould home. Shortly after their son was taken, Gould’s wife killed herself.
“They took our child away from us, and my wife took a handful of morphine pills and died. She just went to sleep. I couldn’t keep it together and eventually social services got tired of it and they terminated my parental rights. Everyday it’s painful. There’s not a day that’s gone by since they took him from me that I haven’t thought about him,” Gould told WFLA-TV in 2015.
Losing his boy and wife drained the addiction-addled military veteran of all hope and energy. It did not take long for Donald Gould to become Donald “Boone.” Just another tangle-haired, faceless hobo living on the streets.
Somehow, Gould made his way from southern Michigan to Sarasota, Florida. No doubt the weather was a motivator for somebody who was living in the outdoors with no source of income, and a habit to support. Regardless of motivation, the choice to live in Sarasota ended up being one of the best decisions Gould would ever make for himself.
In 2015, the Arts and Cultural Society of Sarasota introduced a program called, The Sarasota Keys Piano Project. “It’s an interactive public arts project in downtown Sarasota,” said Jim Shirley, with the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County. “The whole idea is to give access to people who want to express themselves.”
The Society placed seven upright pianos – pianos that had been beautifully painted by local artists – in different city locations. One such piano ended up on the sidewalk in front of the Clasico Café and Bar on downtown Sarasota’s Main Street. Some homeless men would use the piano to play for tips, something that became a source of concern for Raffaele Perna, the proprietor of Clasico. “We are trying to control the amount of tipping that happens not because we don’t want them to be rewarded but they take the money and buy booze and whatever they buy and then they come back an hour later and they can’t even play the piano. That’s the heartbreaking part to it,” said Perna.
On June 25, 2015, Aurore Henry and her son Dylan, of Sussex, Connecticut, were visiting Sarasota when they happened upon Donald Gould as he was seated at the upright piano in front of Clasico Cafe and Bar. Aurore took out her phone and began filming the then 51-year-old former Marine as he played. She posted the vid to her Facebook account and created an overnight sensation that changed Gould’s world.
His beautiful playing of Styx’s, “Come Sail Away” captured the hearts and minds of millions of Facebook and YouTube viewers back in 2015. It also garnered the attentions of media outlets, including Inside Edition. The Inside Edition crew set Gould up with housing and bought the homeless vet a shave and a haircut. Approximately $40,000 was raised via a GoFundMe account, and, Spring Arbor University in Michigan extended an offer of full scholarship so Donald Gould would be able to complete his education.
When interviewed by Florida’s WFLA, Gould choked up, “it’s overwhelming to me. I can’t believe it. I’m still fighting off tears. It’s unbelievable. I never thought it would come to this. I’m a clarinet player.”
The offers kept pouring in. A local business, The Surf Shack, arranged an audition if Gould wished to work in their New York style piano bar. On September 15, 2015, Donald “No-More-Boone” Gould played The Star-Spangled Banner in front of 75,000 Monday Night Football fans for the San Francisco 49’ers vs Minnesota Vikings season opener at Levi’s Field. Recording companies reached out with contract offers. Gould even challenged Jimmy Fallon to a duet duel! Perhaps the most precious moment of this comeback story came after a friend of little Donny’s adoptive family saw the Inside Edition story about a homeless Marine playing piano on a public street in Sarasota, and recognised the name.
Inside Edition and a few other outlets set up a video chat between Donald Gould and his now (in 2015) 18-year-old son, Donny. After the chat, Gould entered a drug rehabilitation center with the hopes that he might be able to develop a relationship with his son – the only thing he really wanted. Once homeless father and now grown son shared more video chats on their way to getting to know one another.
Mid-Autumn of 2015, the City of Sarasota was sued by a group of homeless men for violation of constitutional rights – inadequate/contradictory laws (in a nutshell) regarding sleeping on the city streets. Gould was part of the suit brought against the city. In the past, he had been criminally arrested and prosecuted for sleeping in the streets of Sarasota and felt a responsibility to help end homelessness, and unconstitutional prosecutions of the homeless, even though he was half way off the streets, himself.
“But for the Grace of God, I am here today,” stated Gould. “I went from playing a piano on the streets of Sarasota three months ago to playing the National Anthem for the 49ers in San Francisco. Not everyone gets the same opportunities that I have. It’s important to me that I do what I can to make things right.”
A year or so after the homeless piano virtuoso was “discovered” on the streets of Sarasota, he went back to visit his old friend, the piano in front of Clasico.
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He’s a far more relaxed musician when he’s feeling clean, inside and out. A German producer helped Gould record a CD of covered music. It includes a professionally produced recording of Gould playing Styx’s, “Come Sail Away” along with eight other tracks. More information about Gould and the CD can be found at his website, Donald Gould Music.
I’m not sure what Donald Gould is up to, today. My intent to reach out and see if I could interview him for a minute or two before writing, dissolved. It’s preferable to believe he’s doing great with this second chance, as he said he would be. If Life has been shining down on this gifted and no longer homeless Marine with even a fraction of the beauty he provides us as he plays, he must be doing A-OK.
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SOURCES/MORE INFO:
Homeless Piano Prodigy Gets College Scholarship, Reconnects with Son After 15 Years
Homeless Man Plays Piano So Beautifully It Might Earn Him a Job
Homeless Piano Prodigy’s Heartbreaking Story: ‘I Lost It’ After My Wife Committed Suicide
Homeless and luckless, piano man wows Internet and gets new start
Video of homeless Sarasota man playing piano is going viral
Homeless Piano Prodigy’s Heartbreaking Story: ‘I Lost It’ After My Wife Committed Suicide
Homeless piano man gets recording contract, asks Jimmy Fallon for a duet
Famous homeless piano player is suing Sarasota
Donald Gould Sarasota County Arrest
NO LINK TO OLD STORY FROM THESE ONLINE SOURCES:
www.woodtv.com
www.wfla.com
www.mysuncoast.com
Sarasota Keys
sarasotaarts.org