When Kyle Augustine won a position in the Navy Band, he went bass shopping. Everything he liked was too big or too expensive. He wanted something similar to that of his teacher, Ira Gold, a 17th-century (Dutch?) instrument. Ira suggested that he commission a copy from Tom, resulting in our first “Little Dutchy” model (a compact design, easy to get around). Deviating from normal modern practice, this was our first slab-sawn top, and possibly the loudest bass we’ve ever made.
Opera Lafayette’s next recording was a world premiere recording of the work, which brought it international attention. This led to an invitation for OL to perform at the Opera Royal in Versailles the following year, an extraordinary honor.
Every decade or so the Washington Post printed another article re-discovering us as a new phenomenon. Amusingly, our friend and client Reilly Lewis, the conductor, organist and harpsichordist, who had a worldwide reputation, forwarded the article with an eye-wink note.
The road to Delaware was well worn in 2011, not only because we finally got the Flints’ Kirckman harpsichord back to them, but because they needed tuning and technical work in the collection for a surge of concerts and recordings. In addition to the Kirckman delivery, Barbara made another half dozen trips by the end of the summer – more than a month out of the shop!
At the end of the year, harpsichordist Jory Vinikour embarked on the first of many recording projects in the States at the nearby Sono Luminus studio. He kept a clavichord we made for him at home in France, and came to us for instruments in this country. His first undertaking for this label was the complete harpsichord works of Rameau, a huge and demanding task. We provided the French double made for the University of Maryland, well suited for this repertoire. Jory knocked off this feat in four days: just 25 hours of recording time, more than six hours less than the usual 5-minutes-per-hour rule of thumb. His extraordinary playing paid off big time very shortly, as we will see in 2012.
