Sigma Alpha Iota

PAN PIPES • SPRING 2018 • sai-national.org 6 Be sure to check the SAI Website for additional information! CONVENTION 2018 Memories from the MIM: Musical Instrument Museum I travel many places for out-of-state hockey tournaments as a hockey mom of my twelve year old son, Nathan. In February 2016, his team competed in the 15 th Annual Presidents' Day Invitational in Phoenix, Arizona. During this trip, I visited with our sisters of the Phoenix Alumnae chapter, Heather Featherstone and Marilyn Daggett, as well as Omicron PO, Jennifer Cady. On our last day, we had free time before catching our plane back home to Denver. We decided to check out the number one "Top ing To Do" on TripAdvisor, which happened to be the MIM: Musical Instrument Museum. We spent three hours touring the 200,000-square-foot, two story facility which opened in April 2010. e MIM's collection includes more than 13,600 musical instruments and associated objects, approximately 6,800 of which are displayed at one time and features instruments from nearly two hundred countries and territories in the world. e MIM is one of the best museums I have ever visited! It displays musical instruments and memorabilia from all musical periods and every genre: ancient to classical, jazz to country and pop. ere was a fun interactive display of a full orchestra. Nathan could push the buttons to see the various sections light up blue, and the audio would play a selection from that instrument. It was a wonderful way to introduce symphony instruments by seeing and hearing. e orchestra exhibit also had a list of pieces that would be required audition repertoire for principal clarinet, which is my primary instrument. Nathan enjoyed walking through the MIM with the state of the art headphones. Once he got close to a display, it would describe what he was seeing and play music samples. His favorites were the trumpets from around the world, a huge string bass in the front of the museum, and the handbells. As a handbell director for the last sixteen years, I have a special love for ringing bells. You oen don't see handbells on display, especially in a museum! ere were three recordings of handbell choirs and Malmark bells ranging from G1 to C9. My fieen year old daughter, Gwen would have salivated over the hot pink "Mark VI" Tenor Saxophone. I loved the beautiful blue floral Naturhoorn. Ella Fitzgerald's original scores and beautiful white stage gown were stunning. Also on exhibition were Taylor Swi's piano and Joshua Bell's ½ size violin! Other memorable displays included accordions, a signed harmonica collage, Zildjian cymbals, and memorabilia from artists such as Adolphe Sax, Johnny Cash, Alice Cooper, Maroon 5, Carlos Santana, Black Eyed Peas, Elvis Presley, and John Denver. A special exhibition was there from January 16-June 5, 2016. "Stradivarius – Origins and Legacy of the greatest violin maker" featured our SAI sister: Rachel Barton-Pine. I saw her perform at the Benefit Concert at our SAI Convention in 2009 in Chicago. It was wonderful to learn the history behind Antonio Stradivari's violins and see one of Rachel's own instruments while A MIM Interactive Orchestra Display – the oboe section is lit up in blue.

• Cover