A music conservatory has made a remarkable sacrifice in the name of providing the best education in the arts for its students.
Crafted in 1714 and considered one of the greatest violins ever made or heard, the Joachin-Ma Stradivarius violin was owned by the New England Conservatory, but it’s now been sold to establish the largest endowed scholarship at the institute.
Going up for auction at Sotheby’s in New York, it was estimated to fetch between $12 and $18 million, as the brand value is simply ‘Strad-ospheric.’
The name Joachin-Ma is a combination of the violin’s two most illustrious owners: Hungarian virtuoso Joseph Joachim who lived between 1831 and 1907, and Si-Hon Ma, a Chinese-American immigrant from 1948 who died after the turn of the millennium. It’s strongly believed to have influenced a piece by Johannes Brahms.
“Brahms wrote the Violin Concerto [D Major] specifically for this violin, and it was debuted on this violin in the mid-1800s,” Mari-Claudia Jiménez, Sotheby’s Americas president told CBS Boston days before the auction.
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Ma gifted the violin to the New England Conservatory before his death, having received a degree there in 1950. The sale fell short of estimates at $11.3 million, $4 million less than the world record for a musical instrument sale.
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“The sale is transformational for future students, and proceeds will establish the largest named endowed scholarship at New England Conservatory,” said Andrea Kalyn, president of New England Conservatory. “It has been an honor to have the Joachim-Ma Stradivari on campus, and we are eager to watch its legacy continue on the world stage.”
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