“Imagine traveling from your home in the U.S. to present a concert in a major European city,” writes JJ Abernathy in Friday’s (8/7) Spectrum (Cedar City, Utah). “Because you have a small amount of ivory used in the manufacture of your instrument, you are detained and your instrument confiscated, even though you had arranged an ‘instrument passport’ with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).… Two years ago, U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order to eliminate wildlife trafficking, an industry estimated at $10 billion.… One question worth asking in this regard: Should a violin bow containing two-tenths of a gram of ivory legally obtained be included in such strict new regulations? Under the Director’s Order 210 dated Feb. 25, 2014 … instruments containing African ivory were not allowed to enter the U.S. if the instruments had been purchased after February 26, 1976.… Led by Heather Noonan, vice president for advocacy at the League of American Orchestras, together with 15 other organizations including American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers and Violin Society of America, an appeal for the directive was made, and on May 5, 2014, USFWS slightly relaxed the restrictions on musical instruments.” The article quotes extensively from recent Symphony magazine and Hub coverage of the ivory regulations, with links to the League’s website.
Posted August 11, 2015