Billy Joel exhibit in Stony Brook to close Oct. 26

After nearly two years, Billy Joel's "My Life, A Piano Man’s Journey" will strike its final chord at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame, the Stony Brook institution announced Thursday. The exhibit, touted as the first ever mounted for the Hicksville-raised music star, will close Oct. 26.

"It's been two years, and since we are a full hall of fame" that needs to occasionally refresh its exhibits, "we felt, 'Let's end this,' ” Ernie Canadeo, the venue's chairman, said. Ticket sales "are still strong, and the goal is ending it on a high," noting that the performer "is such a large part of Long Island's music history, we’ll always have a Billy Joel display here. It just won't be the full large exhibit" that launched on Nov. 23, 2023.

While some of the 100-plus items in the 3,000-square-foot exhibit will be returned to Joel and others who lent material, "We will retain a lot of items and possibly even new ones from Billy Joel's archive," Canadeo said. "They've been very supportive of us."

One thing staying in the upcoming smaller display: The 9-foot piano Joel used on his "Face 2 Face Tour" with Elton John. "The piano will remain where it is on the turntable," Canadeo said.

Curated by Art Directors Club Hall of Famer Kevin O’Callaghan, the exhibit chronicles the five-decade career of the singer-songwriter whose more than two dozen hits include "Piano Man," "Uptown Girl" and "We Didn't Start the Fire." Included are memorabilia, instruments, recordings, videos and photos, many from Joel’s personal archive.

The most popular item? A photo of Joel at Fork Lane Elementary School in Hicksville, Canadeo said. "Sitting not far behind him was a young lady," a classmate. "When Billy came to visit the exhibit, he looked at that photo, pointed to her and said, ‘Oh, that's Virginia’ " — as in the girl in his 1978 song "Only the Good Die Young."

"That's probably staying," Canadeo said of the photo.

Replacing the retrospective on Nov. 28, he added, will be two new exhibits that the hall of fame will announce in "a couple of weeks."