If You Can Play It… It’s Here

Thanks To Target, A New Unique Museum Arises

Robert J. Ulrich, the chairman and chief executive of Target Corporation, is the brains behind this one.  I must say, it is a great idea.  Mr. Ulrich donated millions of dollars to establish the decidedly unglamorous Musical Instrument Museum, which he says will be the country’s only free-standing museum devoted to instruments of world cultures.

Fender Exhibit

Featuring more than three thousand instruments and artifacts from around the world, and an ongoing program of exciting live performances, the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) opened to the public on April 24 in Phoenix, Arizona.

A $250-million project, MIM opened its new 190,000-square-foot building with two floors of spacious, light-filled galleries and with a collection of more than ten thousand instruments and associated objects. MIM creates an exciting musical experience for visitors, immersing them in traditions from around the world. The museum’s galleries feature advanced wireless technology and high-resolution video screens, enabling museum guests to see instruments, hear their sounds, and observe them being played in their original settings—performances that are often as spectacular as the instruments. Select exhibits offer an insider’s view of how instruments work, the workshop displays detail the instrument-building process, and the Experience Gallery features musical instruments that guests can touch and play.

Martin Guitar Display

“The goal of the Musical Instrument Museum is to illuminate what is unique about cultures, and also what is shared and universal,” stated Bob Ulrich, MIM founder and board chair. “MIM will provide an experience like none other, allowing musical novices and experts, tourists and scholars, children and grandparents to hear, see, and feel the powerful and uniting force of music in an entirely new way.”

Some Highlights include:

• the Steinway piano on which John Lennon composed “Imagine”;
• Carlos Santana’s custom Yamaha guitar with inlaid Buddhist motifs; an early Paul Reed Smith (PRS) guitar played by Santana, a precursor to the “Supernatural” guitar, named after his multiple Grammy-winning album; and one of his father’s violins;
• Eric Clapton’s well-known “Brownie” Fender Stratocaster guitar, played on the Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs album, and one of Clapton’s Gibson ES-345 guitars from the 1960s;
• George Benson’s Gibson Johnny Smith model guitar and one of the many Grammy awards he won for his multiplatinum album Breezin’;
• one of Paul Simon’s guitars;
• flutes played by Grammy-nominated Native American artist R. Carlos Nakai;
• a 1926 Antun Nahat oud owned and played by Palestinian master musician Simon Shaheen;
• “King of the Surf Guitar” Dick Dale’s rare collection of Fender amplifiers, keyboards, and transformers;
• Black Eyed Peas drummer and Grammy-winner Keith Harris’s drum set;
• one of the enormous drums played at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics; and
• the first Steinway piano, which was built in the kitchen of Henrich Engelhard Steinweg’s home in Seesen, Germany, in 1836.

But wait – there’s more!  It turns out the USA/Canada Geo-Gallery also includes a blues exhibit with not only rare videos, but also contains a National Dobro from the 30′s as well as a Stella 12 string guitar.

John Lennon's Peace Piano

Needless to say, this is not only a “check it out” kind of museum, but one that actually plays tribute to the various instruments from around the globe.  If you are ever out in the Phoenix area, I highly recommend you check this place out.  Finally – a place that pays homage to not only the musicians, but the instruments that helped shape modern music as we know it.

Rock on, Mr. Ulrich, rock on.

A shout out to Josh Fuente, who is responsible for the great photos.

You can check them out on the web here.