Established | 1898 by Frederick Stearns |
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Director | Joseph Gascho |
Staff | Katie Sucha, program manager Carol Stepanchuk, outreach and lecture series director |
Location | Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States 42°17′25.1″N83°43′15.6″W / 42.290306°N 83.721000°W |
Website | smtd.umich.edu |
The Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments, held by the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance in Ann Arbor, Michigan, consists of nearly 3000 historical and contemporary musical instruments from around the world. [1] The basis of the Collection is a gift made to the university by pharmaceutical businessman Frederick Stearns in 1898. [2] Known internationally as a unique research collection, [3] its holdings include the trumpet collection of Armando Ghitalla, former principal trumpet player of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and University of Michigan faculty member; a collection of violin bows from Jerry Tetewsky; as well as Robert Moog's first commercially produced Moog synthesizer from 1964 [4] and the RCA theremin used during the WXYZ broadcasts of the Green Hornet from 1936 to 1952. [1] A catalog documenting the Collection's holdings was published in 1918 [5] by Albert A. Stanley, with a second edition published in 1921. [6] In 1988, Professor James M. Borders published a catalog featuring the Collection's European and American wind and percussion instruments. [7]
The museum's collections include a number of forged or altered items, purchased by the founder from the notorious Italian instrument dealer Leopoldo Franciolini. The museum's web site and signage are unusual among musical instrument museums for the scrupulous care with which these items are identified.
The collection is housed at the North Campus Research Complex and maintains exhibits in the lower lobby of the university's Hill Auditorium on the Central Campus and at the Earl V. Moore Building on the North Campus.
An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is plugged into a power amplifier which drives a loudspeaker, creating the sound heard by the performer and listener.
Robert Arthur Moog was an American engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthesizer, which debuted in 1964. In 1970, Moog released a more portable model, the Minimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history. Among Moog's honors are a Technical Grammy Award, received in 2002, and an induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Wendy Carlos is an American musician and composer best known for electronic music and film scores.
Paul Henry Beaver Jr. was an American musician who was a pioneer in popular electronic music, using the Moog synthesizer. From 1967, Beaver collaborated with Bernie Krause as the recording duo Beaver & Krause.
Moog Music Inc. is an American synthesizer company based in Asheville, North Carolina. It was founded in 1953 as R. A. Moog Co. by Robert Moog and his father and was renamed Moog Music in 1972. Its early instruments included the Moog synthesizer, followed by the Minimoog in 1970, both of which were highly influential electronic instruments.
The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer invented by the American engineer Robert Moog in 1964. Moog's company, R. A. Moog Co., produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 2014. It was the first commercial synthesizer and established the analog synthesizer concept.
The School of Music, Theatre, and Dance is the undergraduate and graduate school for the performing arts of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.
The Bob Moog Memorial Foundation is a non-profit organization created after the death of Dr. Robert Moog in 2005, and officially launched in August 2006. His family established the foundation as "a reflection of Bob Moog's legacy: To educate and inspire people through the power and possibilities of electronic music, and through the intersection of music and science." The foundation is an independent, donor-driven 501(c)(3) organization with no formal affiliations with Moog Music. It is located in Asheville, North Carolina, where Moog spent the last 25 years of his life.
Rocks, Pebbles and Sand is the 1980 album by jazz bass guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Stanley Clarke. This was the first recording where Stanley featured his tenor bass.
Toto XX: 1977–1997 is a compilation album by Toto to celebrate their 20th anniversary. The album features rare original demos, outtakes, previously unreleased recordings and live tracks from the band's 20-year career. Despite its being labeled as a compilation album, Steve Lukather in 2014 defined the album as the tenth studio album overall.
A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and frequency modulation synthesis. These sounds may be altered by components such as filters, which cut or boost frequencies; envelopes, which control articulation, or how notes begin and end; and low-frequency oscillators, which modulate parameters such as pitch, volume, or filter characteristics affecting timbre. Synthesizers are typically played with keyboards or controlled by sequencers, software or other instruments, and may be synchronized to other equipment via MIDI.
The Kurzweil K250, manufactured by Kurzweil Music Systems, was an early electronic musical instrument which produced sound from sampled sounds compressed in ROM, faster than common mass storage such as a disk drive. Acoustic sounds from brass, percussion, string and woodwind instruments as well as sounds created using waveforms from oscillators were utilized. Designed for professional musicians, it was invented by Raymond Kurzweil, founder of Kurzweil Computer Products, Inc., Kurzweil Music Systems and Kurzweil Educational Systems with consultation from Stevie Wonder; Lyle Mays, an American jazz pianist; Alan R. Pearlman, founder of ARP Instruments Inc.; and Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog synthesizer.
Herbert Arnold "Herb" Deutsch was an American composer, inventor, and educator. Until his death in 2022, he was professor emeritus of electronic music and composition at Hofstra University. He was best known for co-inventing the Moog synthesizer with Bob Moog in 1964.
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who plays a musical instrument is known as an instrumentalist.
Merrill Leroy Ellis was an American composer, performer, and experimental music researcher. He is most known for his work with electronic (analog) and intermedia compositions, new compositional techniques, development of new instruments, and exploration of new notation techniques for scoring and performance.
Daniel William McCarthy is an American composer, author, conductor, professor, and black belt martial artist. He has been Professor and Chair of Music Composition and Theory Studies at The University of Akron: School of Music and held the Theodor Dreiser Distinguished Research/Creativity Award at Indiana State University School of Music. He is co-author of "Theory for Today's Musician" with Ralph Turek, published by Routledge Francis & Taylor, NYC? His career as a conductor included serving on the conducting staff of the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, four seasons as Music Director of the Interlochen Festival Orchestra, Interlochen, Michigan, as well as conducting the University of Akron Symphony Orchestra and the Terre Haute Symphony Youth Orchestra. McCarthy, a dedicated martial artist, was promoted to 3rd Degree Black Belt in Chun Ma Tae Kwon Do in May 2012. A student of Grand Master Jeon Gyeong Ho, Akron, Ohio, he pursued additional studies in Asian Weapons, American Kenpo, and Chin Na Kung Fu with Grand Master Sifu James Adkins in Traverse City, Michigan.
The rabel is a bowed stringed instrument from Spain, a rustic folk-fiddle descended from the medieval rebec, with both perhaps descended from the Arab rabab. The instrument generally has two or three strings of gut or steel, or sometimes twisted horse-hair. The instrument is first mentioned in the 12th century, and it is still used in parts of Latin America, as well as the Spanish provinces of Cantabria and Asturias.
Leopoldo Franciolini (1844–1920) was an Italian antique dealer who was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is remembered as a fraudster who sold faked and altered historical musical instruments. To this day his work is a barrier to the scholarly study of instruments of the past.
Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown (1842–1918) was an American writer, collector, and curator of musical instruments.