A tour of Scottsdale’s MIM, where visitors can hear the sounds of the world without ever leaving the Valley.
Ted Simons:
Music lovers can hear the sounds of the world without ever leaving the valley. Producer Colton Shone and photographer Scot Olson take us to the musical instrument museum in north Phoenix.
Colton Shone:
Whether you're a seasoned harp player, or a rookie trying to make music for the very first time, the musical instrument museum is a place where everyone can appreciate music equally. More than 3,000 instruments from every country in the world are on display.
Bill DeWalt:
For most people, they'll recognize many of the instruments that are played in the western countries, like guitar and flute and clarinet and so on. Visitors here will see instruments from all over the world, so there are things they've never seen before in their life.
Colton Shone:
Museum president bill deWalt says that research has been found that every culture in the world has musical instruments, and makes music.
Bill DeWalt:
What is incredible to me I think is this need that people have to express their emotions and their innermost feelings through construction of these amplifiers of human emotion. Musical instruments.
Colton Shone:
Through the audio and visual system, visitors can hear and see the instruments on display being played in cultural context.
Bill DeWalt:
As people move around the world, they take their musical instrument and their music was them. And so you get these incredible influences all around the world.
Colton Shone:
From a bagpipe to a horse's jaw bone, don't be surprised what you'll see on display at the museum. Even when it comes to instruments that were once played by famous artists.
Bill DeWalt:
We do have the piano on which john Lennon composed "imagine." We have a couple of Santana's guitars.
Colton Shone:
DeWalt says they wanted to bring a world class museum to the valley. He says it's a perfect place to be. We know that we're going to be very popular with a very large audience that's here all year-round, and we're going to capture a lot of those people who come here for convention and a lot of those people who come here for tourism.
Colton Shone:
DeWalt says prepare for the best experience you'll ever hear.
Ted Simons:
The musical instrument museum is open seven days a week, it's located on the southwest corner of Tatum and Mayo Boulevards, just south of the 101.Coming up on "Horizon," we'll talk about another ballot measure, this time proposition 112 that would amend the state's constitution's requirements for when petition signatures need to be filed before an election. Again, that's Tuesday at 7:00 on "Horizon." That is it for now. I'm Ted Simons. Thank you so much for joining us. You have a great evening.
