[Dixielandjazz] Musicians get to keep their instruments

[Laurence Swain]

I believe this non-OKOM story was reported on this list a while ago.

Here's an update:

How Audubon Musicians Kept Their Instruments

By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Published: February 7, 2006

Last month, an anonymous individual stepped in to help two members of the Audubon 
String Quartet keep their instruments after they lost a lawsuit to a fired former colleague 
and faced bankruptcy.

Now, the person has stepped forward.

He is Daniel Braden, 53, a freelance French horn player in Bethlehem, Pa., who buys 
instruments as an investment and lends them to musicians who may not be able to afford 
them.

"Those instruments are part of their musical personality, their musical identity," Mr. 
Braden said in a telephone interview. "I thought this was an opportunity to address this 
one aspect of the situation."

The "situation" is a bitter, drawn-out legal dispute between David Ehrlich, the quartet's 
former first violinist, and its three other members: Akemi Takayama, the second violinist; 
Doris Lederer, the violist; and Clyde Shaw, the cellist. Mr. Shaw and Ms. Lederer are 
married.

The three dismissed Mr. Ehrlich in February 2000 after a history of tensions. Mr. Ehrlich 
sued and won a $611,000 judgment. After years of appeals and bankruptcy hearings, a 
December deadline arrived for Mr. Shaw's and Ms. Lederer's instruments — a 1915 
Ferruccio Varagnolo viola, and an 1887 Eugenio Degani cello along with an 1860 bow by 
Nicolaus Kittel — to be sold to raise money to pay the judgment.

But after a round of news reports, the two sides agreed to settle the case. A key aspect 
of the settlement was Mr. Ehrlich's acceptance of a $200,000 payment in exchange for 
dropping his claim on the instruments.

Mr. Braden said that after learning of the circumstances, he approached Ms. Lederer and 
Mr. Shaw, offering to buy their instruments for that amount. In exchange, they would 
have the guaranteed use of them for 10 years.

"I needed them to feel there are a couple of things in their lives that are guaranteed," Mr. 
Braden said, adding that the two musicians have the option to buy back the instruments 
at a set price for a period of time, which he did not disclose. After 10 years, he said, they 
will discuss the next step.

"I want to make it very clear, I'm not a donor," he said. "I'm buying the instruments and 
loaning them back to them." But, he added, "I have great sympathy for what this has 
meant and done to them emotionally."

Mr. Braden said that for about two decades starting in the early 1980's, he did tax work 
for musicians and worked as a business manager for a New York violin dealer. He 
invested his earnings in the 90's, he said, adding, "The stock market was very good to 
me."

Now a violinist in the Berlin Philharmonic, a cellist in the Pittsburgh Opera and a violinist 
in the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra, in which Mr. Braden also plays, are borrowing 
his instruments, he said.

As part of the settlement with Mr. Ehrlich, which was signed on Friday, Mr. Shaw and Ms. 
Lederer must vacate their house in Blacksburg, Va., by March 15 and turn it over to the 
bankruptcy trustee for sale. Mr. Ehrlich is to receive the proceeds, expected to be more 
than $200,000, as well as $59,000 in liquidated retirement annuities from the couple.

The couple also rent a home in Winchester, Va., where they teach at Shenandoah 
University's conservatory. They live in Blacksburg because until the lawsuit, the quartet 
had residency at Virginia Tech, which is based there.

Ms. Takayama reached a separate deal to pay $40,000 to Mr. Ehrlich, Mr. Shaw said.

"This is it, as far as I'm concerned," Mr. Shaw said, referring to the end of the lawsuit. 
"When we played a concert Friday night, Akemi and I and Doris looked at each other and 
said, 'Oh, my God, we're finished.' "

Larry Swain