A Visit to the Fiske Museum, November 11, 2003

We have enjoyed many visits to the Kenneth G. Fiske Museum of Musical Instruments at The Claremont Colleges. We are and welcomed by our dear friend Al Rice, on the left in the photo below, the dedicated and knowlegeable curator of the collection.
This little known treasurehouse is located on the Claremont Colleges campus at 450 North College Way; Claremont, CA 91711-4491. It houses one of the most diverse collections of musical instruments in the United States, containing over 1,400 American, European and ethnic instruments (brass, woodwind, keyboard, sting and ethnic) dating from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries.
Whenever we go, the focus of interest shifts according to our companions, since the museum collection is so diverse and rich. Always, we are interested in the flutes and other woodwinds, and this time especially so. Our friends David and Nina Shorey, who just moved from Amsterdam, and Joe Moir were in our group today. Joe has his own woodwind instrument repair shop in Santa Monica for many years, and has worked on many of Rick's flutes. David and Nina have sold Rick flutes and do flute restoration as well. You can see Joe in the center of the photo below.

Beautiful Nina, David's wife shares his fascination with flutes. Nina and Kathy became close friends quickly, and have lots in common.

While David tried some flutes

Rick was thinking about trying the new macro lens on his new camera.
Here are two of his photos. The first is a detail of a large holed English 8 key flute by Clementi.
The second is detail from a silver Boehm flute by Eugene Albert of Brussels, circa 1860, one of Ricks favorites, the sweetest sounding cylindrical bore Boehm flute Rick knows. It has been lent to the Fiske Museum by Joe Moir.

Here's the whole pretty Clementi flute, circa 1820.

Now all we need is a concert!
Admission to the Museum is free. Tours must be made by appointment. Call (909) 621-8307 or contact the curator Albert R. Rice at arrice@rocketmail.com . Or call or email Kathy and Rick — we'll contact Al and accompany you on another tour anytime!
Go to Kathy and Rick's Home Page