Video: How the right instrument impacts a musician's career

Professional string musicians train their entire lives, often starting at the age of four or even younger, studying and practicing every day. Less than one percent of all that study music performance end up with a career as a soloist with the opportunity to get a loan of a high-caliber instrument. Many career musicians also have more years of education, with multiple degrees, and spend more time and effort becoming expert on their tool of trade — their instrument — than do experts in virtually any other profession. Certainly it is understood that the average pay for a musician does not come close to paying back their investment in their education, nor does their income support purchasing an adequate instrument at today’s increasing prices.

It just had the sound quality and the tone quality that I had dreamed of for all of the concertmaster solos.

Nurit Bar-Josef, concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra, explains, “I knew immediately when I picked up this Guadanini [violin] that it was made for a concertmaster. It just had the sound quality and the tone quality that I had dreamed of for all of the concertmaster solos. There was no way I could afford it. I was lucky enough to know someone who was willing to purchase it, interested in making an investment, and was then willing to loan it to me, which was incredible.”

Musicians often go through multiple instruments as their career progresses. Regino Madrid, former associate concertmaster of the “Presidents Own” Marine Chamber Orchestra, says, “I’ve now been playing for over 40 years, and I’ve owned 4 instruments and each played a large part in the next stage of my development.” A graduate of the prestigious Cleveland Institute of Music, Madrid explains that to support his development, “My parents bought me my starter instrument, and that instrument actually really helped me in my audition for music school.”

Madrid counts himself among the lucky few who were able to purchase their own instruments - but he definitely had help. “I am so fortunate to have this amazing violin by J.B. Vuillaume, from his golden period in 1845. Purchasing it was only possible because my previous instrument had appreciated so rapidly over 12 years.” If his parents “hadn’t invested $18,000 back then” before his music school audition, he “wouldn’t have been able to upgrade several times” to what he has now.

That instrument helped me win my audition for music school

The importance of the right instrument to a musician’s career cannot be understated. According to Bar-Josef, “These instruments are our voices. We seek something that matches our personality and our style of playing. When you’ve found something that achieves everything that you’ve wished for in an instrument, it really feels like you’ve found your soulmate, your match for life.”

Strumenti.com provides an online platform for patron-investors to acquire shares in violins, which will be loaned to promising artists to help further their careers. Together we can make a difference by making sure that these instruments will remain in the hands of musicians, so they will be played in performance for all of us to enjoy.

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