Tuesday, May 6, 2008   10:01 am

Andrew Shuttleworth, Marketing and Design, PCA Great PerformancesA close call for a precious violin

By Andrew Shuttleworth
Marketing and Design, PCA Great Performances

I have a special morbid fascination for valuable instruments that come to harm – it isn’t schadenfreude (I swear) but rather empathy for the unlucky musician mixed with a horrible fear that I will cause some similar disaster someday.

In that light, I offer you this BBC story with a happier ending than some. Violinist Philippe Quint left a 1723 Stradivarius in a Newark, New Jersey taxicab last month. The cabbie very kindly returned it, and has been rewarded with money, with a private concert by Mr. Quint at the taxicab waiting area of Newark Liberty International Airport, with tickets to Mr. Quint’s upcoming Carnegie Hall performance, and – get this – with the key to the city of Newark. I think I speak for us all when I say that he deserves every bit of it.

Anyone interested, as am I, in historically significant musical instruments will be interested in next week’s James Ehnes performance – Mr. Ehnes plays the 1715 “Ex Marsick” Stradivarius. And this coming Thursday we welcome the Borromeo String Quartet, whose cellist Yeesun Kim plays a remarkably gorgeous instrument crafted by Bresciani Peregrino Zanetto sometime around the year 1575.

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asides

The Borromeo and Elliott Schwartz in the news

The Borromeo String Quartet and composer Elliott Schwartz are getting some press attention for the upcoming premiere.

Andrew Shuttleworth

Spirit of Uganda information

For those of you who want to learn more about Spirit of Uganda and the organization that supports them, check out Empower African Children.

Barri Lynn Moreau

Buy the Momix soundtrack

Many of the pieces used for the soundtrack of Momix’s Lunar Sea are available for sale at Amazon. Buy them using these links and Amazon will donate a portion of the sale to PCA.

Andrew Shuttleworth

Connecting with Maine’s rich maritime history

A wide range of educational and community outreach activities will connect The Acting Company’s upcoming PCA performance of Orson Welles’ Moby Dick Rehearsed to Maine’s rich maritime history. Learn more on our Moby Dick Rehearsed page.

Tom Ayres