Carbon-cello inventor dies, at 89
RIPThe Boston Symphony cellist Luis Leguia had a eureka moment while out sailing on his catamaran. Seeing the new fibreglass materials used in making seaworthy vessels, he wondered if they could not be applied to creating a cello that sounded like a Strad.
He made a prototype in 1990. The another. The third one was successful. He started a business.
Leguia, who played 44 years in the Boston Symphhony from 1963 to 2007, gave the Boston premiere of Arnold Schoenberg’s Cello Concerto and enjoyed an international solo career alongside his orchestral job.
Didn’t George Szell once order a complete set of string instruments with plastic bodies, in search of tonal homogeneity? Or was that just a Cleveland myth?
Thomas Fawick was an investor, Renaissance man etc. He made violins that were somewhat mass produced and a few are still around. Szell supposedly ordered an entire set for TCO, so all players would play the same instrument. It either fell through or was an urban legend, but the fiddles are definitely real!
The instruments are pretty seaworthy vessels themselves, too.
There was a New Orleans cellist who recovered his cello after Katrina…only needed the bridge and strings replaced.
Maddy basses have been floated too….