TubeNet

http://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA/Con ... 3D,00.html

I read this great article on Mr. Olka and that horn and it made me wonder if many orchestras give the members any amount of money for instruments. (An allowance) Since Mr. Olka is a Yamaha artist I would assume that he gets a large discount on his instrument, (rightfully so) but I do recall him selling that prototype MW to help with the cost of the Yamayorkamaha... I digress...I would like to know more about how orchestras go about doing this.

My orchestra buys instruments. I let 'em buy me a 188 as a 'back-up, light-&-tight' horn, but my Nirschl's all mine, skanky intonation and all.

Well, the point with orchestras is this: orchestra players do not earn enough money to pay for the equipment they are expected to have.

Prices for superior string instruments have been driven up in the last 40 years by donors who want to have their names publicized; ergo the wealthy patrons have driven up the price for all of the strings. Many bows cost more than the Yamayork.

The violin teacher at my undergrad school paid $90,000 for his Guarneri violin when he was a student in the 1950's. When he retired, the sale of the Guarneri was in six figures. He sold it to an orchestra's donor.

If an orchestra, wanting to be in the top tier, has musicians playing on "inferior" instruments then they loose their claim to top tiership.

So, a tuba player asking for $30,000 to buy an instrument is not totally excessive to a major orchestra. They probably evaluate a lot of criteria before they spring for it but in the grand scheme of things, it is not a huge purchase.

$30K might get a professional cellist a decent bow.

The phrase "first sold to a member of the public" seems odd to me.

Jim Self and Norm Pearson both have these horns, and I think I recall hearing that Gene Pokorny has one as well.

It seems like Chris is at least the third or fourth "member of the public" to have one of these horns. Maybe he's the first person that Yamaha has asked to pay for the instrument? This wouldn't be uncommon, especially given the prominence of the other players and their inputs into the design process. If this is the case, Yamaha isn't using very good discretion with the story on their web site.

Rod

bloke wrote:Isn't it a shame that society forces musicians to play in orchestras and to buy expensive instruments as well?