Returning to hit the right note

Everyone has a skeleton in their closet, and apparently quite a few people have a trombone, flute, oboe or xylophone tucked away back there too.

The Wollongong Conservatorium of Music has declared an amnesty on all instruments on perpetual loan to past students, asking those with a Conservatorium owned instruments of any kind to bring them back- no questions asked and with no fear of retribution.

New Executive Director of the Conservatorium Andrew Snell said there could be as many as 100 instruments laying around in people’s houses, with the offending leasers maybe too worried about the consequences of their long overdue return to bring them back.

Mr Snell has admitted that the Conservatorium has been lax in keeping track of its instruments and guessed that between 50-100 of the institutions horns, woodwinds and percussive implements have gone absent without leave.

Mr Snell, who until a few weeks ago was the orchestra manager of Orchestras Australia, said most of the missing instruments wouldn’t fetch much at market, but are very valuable for students wanting to learn to play music.

“A lot of our stocks are quite old instruments and their value is more in their use than their monetary value,” he said.

“If you’ve got a ten year old trumpet it’s not really worth any thing in monetary terms but to us it is worth a lot.”

As well as the amnesty, Mr Snell wants the word to go out that people wanting to donate an unused instrument or even loan an instrument to the conservatorium are more than welcome to do so.

Larger, more expensive instruments would be particularly well received, as they tend to be more rare, Mr Snell said.

For example, the Conservatorium currently has about four bassoons in stock, but according to Mr Snell it really needs more like 12 so that a lot of students can be learning and feeding into the orchestras.

Even entry-level larger instruments like bassoons, trombones and tubas cost several thousand dollars each, while top-of-the-range instruments compete in price with small cars (Mr Snell’s Bass Trombone is worth around $20,000).

Anyone with an instrument belonging to the conservatorium or who may wish to donate an instrument can phone 4228 1122.