NastyLittleMan.comPaul McCartney will join Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. at a September 18 fundraiser for the Motown Museum at Steinway Hall in New York City.  As part of the event, the 1877 Steinway grand piano that for years was a fixture at the Motown recording studio, and which McCartney paid to have restored last year, will be celebrated.

According to Billboard.com, McCartney and Gordy both are expected to play the instrument at the intimate benefit, which will cost $10,000 to attend.  Steinway Hall can hold only about 100 people.

McCartney first offered to have the piano repaired after he visited the Motown Museum prior to a July 2011 concert at Detroit's Comerica Park.  Upon learning that the instrument -- which had been featured on classic songs by Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and many others -- was no longer playable, he paid to have it shipped to the Steinway & Sons headquarters in the Big Apple for a complete makeover.

Motown Museum executive Robin Terry, whose late grandmother Esther Gordy Edwards founded the museum, spoke with Billboard.com about McCartney's commitment to the restoration.

"One of the things Paul said is he wanted to see this project through from beginning to end," she explained.  She added that  the facility's trustees thought the fundraiser "was an appropriate way of doing it, unveiling the piano and inviting both Paul and Mr. Gordy to be the first to sort of put their DNA on it, if you will."

The piano is expected to be back on display at the Motown Museum by late November, along with the original components that were removed during the refurbishment.  Terry says the instrument will be used "in our education programming [to] really inspire other talented people in the Detroit area" who are considering careers in music.

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