The curator’s conundrum – when you have a large collection of historically significant musical instruments going back as far as 1575, many of which are still in playable condition, how do you share the informative nature of these irreplaceable gems as widely as possible without damaging them? Almost all musical instrument museums have systems in place that allow visitors to hear a piece of music recorded on a particular instrument, but what if there was a way to make a virtual, and eminently playable version of these instruments available to everyone from young music students to seasoned performers and composers?

At the Sigal Music Museum, a long-term project with this goal in mind is now bearing fruit! In 2023 a partnership developed between the museum and Alex Davis of Tempest Instruments. Alex was a co-founder of Embertone, a creator of high-quality sample libraries and his experience working with GRAMMY award-winning violinist and Academy of St Martin in the Fields Music Director Joshua Bell made him the perfect choice for this endeavor. The care and attention to detail that he used with Bell and his Stradivarius was also brought to bear on the museum’s iconic instruments.

After many long hours of laboriously recording thousands of individual notes, the results are as close as you can get to a musical time machine. Titled Sigal Collection Volume 1, the first volume of sampled instruments includes an 1845 Broadwood Grand Piano that was played by Chopin. When this virtual version is played, not only is the musician playing and hearing a piano graced by one of the greatest composers and musicians of all time; this physical instrument still has almost all the original strings in place, and sonic explorers are interacting with samples of the same strings Chopin heard vibrate! History comes alive and sparks new creativity.

Other instruments in the library include the 1761 Dual-Manual Kirkman Harpsichord that was King George III’s wedding present to Queen Charlotte, an 1815 Walter Grand Piano, an anonymous 1660 Italian Harpsichord, a 1784 Stein Grand Piano, and an anonymous 1780 Spanish Clavichord.

The project is sponsored by the Metropolitan Arts Council, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Native Instruments, and Tempest Instruments. Thanks to a grant from IMLS, complete workstations for exploring these instruments are currently being installed in ten Greenville County Schools. The first ten schools to receive this program were chosen for their proven commitment to music education, and in the future, we hope to expand this to many more schools, not only those with large music programs, but also for those schools who need a spark for their growing music education programs.

Soundtrack composers and other computer music aficionados can purchase Sigal Collection Volume 1 on the Tempest Instruments website.

IN THE NEWS

SYNTHTOPIA

New Sound Library Lets You Play Chopin’s Piano & Other Rare Keyboard Instruments

SONICSTATE

Sigal Collection Volume 1 – Rare Historic Keyboards Sampled

GEARNEWS

Play Chopin’s Piano and Mozart’s Harpsichord

KVR AUDIO NEWS

Tempest Instruments releases Sigal Collection Volume 1 (Flagship Piano)