It's almost time to pack up my measuring tools again -- next week, I'll accompany Bill Scott on a field trip to study old Italian masters in their natural habitat. Not Italy (I wish!!), but the next-best destination, which is the excellent National Music Museum in tiny Vermillion, South Dakota. I haven't been to the NMM in quite a few years -- they have a wonderful, thorough, eclectic collection of just about any kind of instrument, well deserving of more than the two half-days we can spare them. Bill's goal is to get an up-close and personal look at a Bergonzi viola. I'd love to be able to take an Andrea Amati or two out of its glass case. Half of my students chose to occupy their time with Andrea A's violins, and I feel they deserve a better-informed teacher. So inform myself I will. I only wish I had time to add a trip to the Badlands, too ....
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