“The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra announced late Friday afternoon that a $100,000 reward was being offered to anyone who provides information that leads to the safe return of the 1715 Stradivarius violin stolen from the orchestra’s concertmaster, Frank Almond, after a chamber concert in Milwaukee on Monday evening,” writes Allan Kozinn in Friday’s (1/31) New York Times. “Susan Loris, a spokeswoman for the orchestra, said she was unable to identify the source of the reward money.… The violin … was given to Mr. Almond as a permanent loan in 2008…. ‘I sincerely hope the last note of the “Quartet for the End of Time,” ’ he added, referring to the Messiaen work that closed his chamber program on Monday, ‘isn’t my final experience with this violin.’ … Mark Niehaus, the president of the Milwaukee Symphony, said that the orchestra’s musicians and administration were shaken by the theft and particularly the manner in which it was committed,” an armed robbery in a parking lot. In addition, Norman Lebrecht noted on Sunday (2/2) in his ArtsJournal blog that an “open letter to the criminals who stole Frank Almond’s Strad” has been posted at Craigslist, giving advice on how to care for the violin, warning that the violin “could soon be worthless if they don’t treat it well.”
Posted February 4, 3014
