12 Broadcaster Press October 6, 2015 www.broadcasteronline.com National Music Museum To Allow Rare Stradivari Cello To Be Played At Historic Sioux City Symphony Event Unique “Night At The Museum” Concert Celebrates SCSO 100th Anniversary Vermillion, SD/Sioux City, IA – For understandable reasons, the National Music Museum (Vermillion, South Dakota) very rarely permits its priceless Stradivari instruments to leave the museum and be played. “So, to have the chance to hear a Strad — and in live performance — is not only a great privilege but a once-in-a-lifetime concertgoer experience,” says Ryan Haskins, Sioux City Symphony Orchestra director and conductor. On a historic evening this October, on the Orpheum Theater stage in Sioux City, the National Music Museum’s 1730 Antonio Stradivari cello will come alive once again. The Sioux City Symphony Orchestra (SCSO) in collaboration with the Na- tional Music Museum (NMM) will present “Night at the Museum.” This spectacular production will feature not only the NMM’s Stradivari cello (played by Kenneth Olsen, of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), but a historic 1780 Calisto harpsichord, an 18th-century keyed trumpet, a special 1937 Martin alto saxophone, and a stunning Indonesian gamelan. The Saturday, October 17th event will take place at 7:30 p.m. People are urged to reserve tickets now. “This is not a concert we will be able to repeat,” says Haskins. The New York Times recently called the National Music Museum “one of the largest and most important collections of historical instruments in the world,” whose “galleries teem with masterpieces.” Haskins says, “It will be a great privilege, and indeed thrill, for the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra to perform with these masterpiece instru- ments.” At least two of the instruments are being incorporated into a public performance for the first time in more than a century. The harpsichord has never previously been played with a modern symphony orchestra. “It will also be a historic night for the classical music world as a whole,” says Haskins. The Sioux City Symphony Orchestra is celebrating its 100th year. “Night at the Museum” will showcase the vitality of classical music and instruments. The NMM’s rare Stradivari “Fruh” cello was originally a bass viola da gamba, made in Cremona, Italy, around 1730. It left the Stradivari workshop with five or six strings and frets but was converted into a cello in the mid-19th century to suit changing musical tastes. Formerly owned and played by cellist Karl Fruh, the cello resides alongside other National Music Museum crown jewels — an Antonio Stradivari violin, mandolin and guitar — in the Museum’s renowned Rawlins Gallery. “Some of the most common questions we get at the museum are ‘What does a Stradivari sound like? Or ‘Do you ever let anyone play them?’ Here are some answers,” says National Music Museum director Cleveland Johnson. Among the other instruments gracing the Orpheum stage for “Night at the Museum” will be the NMM’s Calisto harpsichord. One of only a half dozen Portuguese harpsichords to survive, it was made about 1780 and is the only known example of maker José Calisto’s masterful craftsmanship. The Calisto will be played by award-winning American harpsichordist Byron Schenkman. A keyed trumpet will also be making a special appearances at the event. Structur- ally different from the valved trumpet used by modern orchestras, it is rarely heard in performance in part because so few pieces have been written for it. “The keyed trumpet also requires an exceptional musician — a true specialist,” says Haskins. “Only a handful of musicians throughout the world can play it, and well.” The instrument will be played by celebrated Baroque trumpeter Barry Bauguess. The featured Martin alto saxophone, one of the treasures in the National Music Museum’s saxophone collection, was owned by renowned American classical saxophonist Cecil Leeson, who debuted the Glazunov Concerto to the United States on it in 1938. Zachary Shemon, of the acclaimed PRISM Quartet, will play the Martin. The massive Kyai Rengga Manis Everist Gamelan, which also will be displayed in the Orpheum, is America’s largest Javanese percussion orchestra and consists of more than 50 instruments. The gamelan was acquired by the National Music Museum in 1999 as the result of a generous gift from the late Margaret Ann Everist of Sioux City. Minneapolisbased professional group Sumunar (Joko Sutrisno, Director) will play the NMM gamelan. Among the classical pieces to be performed at “Night at the Museum” are Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks; J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Harpsichord in F minor BWV1056; Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto; and the previously mentioned Glazunov Saxophone Concerto. Other National Music Museum treasures will be displayed throughout the Orpheum venue during this enchanting “Night at the Museum” experience. For further information and tickets, go to siouxcitysymphony.org