
At the Pasadena Symphony, musicians brought cellos, violins, flutes, a bassoon, trumpets, and guitars to the instrument drive for students who lost theirs in the Eaton or Pasadena Fires. Photo by Kerstin Zilm.
In Friday’s (1/31) KCRW (Santa Monica, CA), Kerstin Zilm writes, “As musician Russel Mark tells it, when he first bought a trumpet at a garage sale back in high school and tried to play it, he thought it was broken. ‘I could get a note or two out of it, but not much more than that,’ he says. When he let a friend give it a go, he realized ‘it wasn’t the trumpet that was broken.’ Now, he says, ‘I have finally decided, 30 years later, it’s time for the trumpet to go to a better cause.’ That cause is a donation drive for students who lost their musical instruments to the Eaton or Pasadena Fires, sponsored by the Pasadena Symphony. The group played its first concert after the fires on Saturday. Tickets were free for first responders and those impacted by the destruction…. Sarah Weber, executive director of the Association of California Symphony Orchestras, brought a violin that she had spruced up with new strings and a new bow before taking it to the symphony…. Dozens of musicians stopped at the desk to donate instruments…. Students not only left their instruments behind when they evacuated, several schools in Altadena also lost their whole instrument libraries… The Pasadena Symphony will be accepting gently used instruments for young musicians affected by the fires until further notice.
Read Symphony’s article about the impact of the LA fires on musicians, orchestras, board members, and staff at https://symphony.org/features/music-musicians-and-the-la-wildfires/.