Welcome to The Cello Museum!
What is The Cello Museum? Find out here.
The Cello Museum is Completely Online
Even before the pandemic, we planned for The Cello Museum to exist completely online. This allows the museum to be open to all, free of charge, wherever there is internet access.
Having our exhibitions online also means that no cellos that could be in the hands of players are held “in captivity.”
While we are grateful to other museums for preserving valuable information by taking some rare instruments out of circulation (and thus mostly avoiding being subjected to the changes made to instruments in current use), we wanted to create a different type of museum.
This is a vast subject we will address and debate in more detail in the future.
Cello for All
While there are numerous platforms for cellists of varying levels, The Cello Museum is for everyone who loves the cello – listeners, performers, and students alike.
Our mission is to present an interdisciplinary view of the cultural and technical history of the cello as well as to present a perspective of its place in the world today in its many and widely varied contexts.
Making Connections
We have noticed that some environments (online and in real life) foster competition and in some cases, one-upmanship. While there is a place for healthy competition, The Cello Museum focuses on making connections rather than establishing any sort of hierarchy.
We aim to foster connections among cello enthusiasts of all sorts, including performers, teachers, researchers, composers, students, and audiences.
Overall, our vision is to inspire, educate, and entertain those who love and/or play the cello.
OK, so what’s actually in The Cello Museum?
We describe The Cello Museum as a compendium of the cello. A compendium can be defined as:
“a collection of concise but detailed information about a particular subject.”
The three types of content that you can expect to find here are:
- Cello News – a compilation of current news stories related to the cello and cellists
- Cello Articles – a variety of articles covering a wide range of cello topics
- Cello Exhibitions – online exhibitions of instruments, instrument accessories, and cello-related materials
A New Approach
The online platform allows us to update and add to the story of the cello in a new way, blending the best qualities of books about the cello, cello holdings in museums and archives, and an online platform.
Those who have studied cello history know that many texts on the cello begin with a definition of the terminology used to describe the instrument, proceed with a history of its physical make-up, hit the highlights of what the author views as the greatest cellists and repertoire, and if we’re lucky, will include an accurate index and bibliography.
The way one has traditionally experienced museums is via interpreted displays of objects. Recently we’ve seen much innovation – and debate – about museums presenting materials to the public during the pandemic.
The Cello Museum aims to bring together the best of these two means of presenting information and make use of the easily and inexpensively edited, expanded, and ever-changing online format of a website.
Please note that while we have chosen the online format, we love cello books, brick-and-mortar museums, and archives that preserve and display cello materials.
One of our aims is to bring together, highlight, and help direct our online visitors to these texts and physical institutions.
Cello Stories
Overall, in choosing what to feature in The Cello Museum, we aim to share the best cello stories.
In other words, we are not exclusively seeking the oldest, most exalted instruments, nor restricting our focus to the finest performers; rather, we want to bring to light those instruments and cellists with interesting tales to tell.
This does not mean we are in any way against topics about the most elite instruments and performers. Quite the contrary – we want to tell their stories, too – but we do not want to stop there.
Other resources focus exclusively on the best of the best. However, our definition of “best” relates more to the story than to pedigree, credentials, or current performance abilities.
Glass Fiber Cello by Tim Duerinck
First Exhibition: Innovations in Cello-Making Materials
We have been hard at work on the first exhibitions since early this year. Our first exhibition is Innovations in Cello-Making Materials.
The beauty of an online museum is that we do not need to worry about how to fit lots of cellos into one physical space, plus we can continue to add new instruments to the exhibitions as they come to light.
If you have or know of any cellos or cello-related materials that you think should be included for this or future exhibitions, please contact us.
We plan to create new exhibitions roughly every six months.
Enter our prize drawing for a chance to win cello merch.
Celebrate with Us and Enter to Win Cello Merch
Starting today and continuing on each of the next three Fridays, we will be doing random prize drawings for some cello merch.
Please join our mailing list for details on how to enter. The winner today will receive a mug. Other prizes this week include a cello case sticker and a laptop sticker.
Thank You
Thank you to everyone who has followed us on our journey so far via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Your enthusiasm has kept us all moving forward, and we are grateful to you. We look forward to sharing the journey ahead with you as The Cello Museum grows and evolves.
Your Turn
Please comment and tell us where you are from and what cello interests you have. We’d love to hear from you.
