One never knows where your work will end up, which is why you try to do your best while taking into consideration the wishes of the initial client. Twenty-five years after we made an instrument elaborately decorated by Sheridan Germann, the owner decided to donate it to the National Music Museum. It’s always satisfying to have one’s oeuvre in a museum, but it took the NMM until 2021 to showcase the harpsichord in its newsletter and on that year’s calendar featuring great photos of collection pieces.
Meanwhile, Jacob Stone played his Master’s recital on the bass he made during his pandemic time in the shop. A week after graduating from the Univ. of Iowa, he returned to us full time. The bass was still in the white, but he varnished it that summer, and the week after putting his label inside to mark its completion, sold it to longtime friend and colleague Rob Catinella.
With the summer of 2021 still under the covid cloud, in addition to Jacob on staff we were mentoring bassist Henri Gross and a gifted local teenager. To teach them some skills, we made a “project” bass using the Maggini as a model. Rick Barber borrowed the instrument while his original Maggini was being photographed for the Italian Bass book. Two weeks later he emailed: “I’m not bringing it back.” So now he has The Maggini and a backup with the same setup.
The field of instrument decoration lost a seminal figure whose work had enhanced the production of most significant early keyboard makers for the previous 50 years. Sheridan Germann not only painted for everyone (dozens of instruments for us), but her research and documentation of historical examples was unrivaled. The youthful photo of her at work is bookended by the last picture we have of her.
Musician and Smithsonian curator Ken Slowik used much of his covid down-time (concerts cancelled, the museum mostly closed to staff) to do a re-restoration of his Kirkman harpsichord. He updated its 1950s renovation to current conservation standards and made it concert-ready.
