At the front of the building are listed the principals of the museum's development. Foremost is Robert Ulrich, Founder and Board Chairman of MIM, Retired CEO of Target Corporation, and Past Chairman of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA). MIA is a Curatorial Advisor (many other major museums are also on that Council), and at the main entrance is a list of major contributors which includes Target, MIA, and 3M.
I'll get my sadness out of the way - I wish this museum had been located in Minneapolis. One could make a strong case for that, given who the founder is, and the contributors.
But, be that as it may, this is a wonderful thing that has been created here, and it is a nice warm place to come visit!
The building is beautiful, and the collection is beyond description. It is organized to show instruments from every corner of the world. Instruments are organized by country and there are many countries covered. Each display has a flat panel TV to show videos of each country's people playing their instruments. Visitors who wear special receivers and headphones can hear the music as they stand in front of each collection and the TV, while at the same time viewing the wonderful instruments.
Who knew how many ways there are to play stringed instruments, how many different forms there are of reed instruments, percussion instruments, gongs, horns, bagpipes (bagpipes are found in MANY areas of the world), keyboards, the list goes on.
The museum does a little to show the development of instruments through the ages, but doesn't do much to show the inter-relatedness of cultures and their music. It is mostly a country by country display. But the collection is astonishing, varied and enlightening, and well worth a special trip.
I was too busy to take many photos. Got a couple in the Mechanical Music Room, one of the Apollonia, a 25 foot long mechanical orchestra used in dance halls, a violano virtuoso (a mechanical piano/ violin player), and I made a special trip back to the second floor to get a photo of
The Clavicytherium, a replica of the oldest extant keyboard instrument, southern Germany, c. 1480. The real one is shown in the video and is so old and deteriorated that it can't be played, but the replica is played. Really cool.
Apollonia
Replica Clavicytherium
Violano Virtuoso
There is a performance hall attached to the museum. We have tickets for a chamber ensemble concert in March. Looking forward to that.
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Location:Scottsdale, AZ
