StradivariusGib Singleton, Bronze, 22 x 13" x 9", ed. 99

“This piece is a really personal one, and it’s from a peak moment in my life.

“I was living in Santa Fe, and I’d just had both hips replaced and I couldn’t walk or even get around the house much. So one day my buddy Tom from the Morgan Club calls up and says, ‘I’m going to send a present over for you.’

“Well, the doorbell rings and I answer it, and it’s a guy with long hair, wearing tennis shoes, and carrying a big case. He says, ‘I’m your present.’ Turns out he’s Felix Fan, who is one of the top cellists in the world!

He gives me a big hug and, man, we’re bonded. As artists, we kind of live in our own world, right? And it doesn’t matter whether you’re a painter talk-ing to a sculptor or a sculptor talking to a musician. You share the experience of that art just kind of welling up in you.

“So we go in the living room and he opens the case, and in-side is what looks like a regular cello, only kind of beat up. But then he shows it to me, and it’s a Stradivarius! It’s like a five million dollar instru-ment. It belongs to a bank in New York and they let Felix take it when he’s playing a major concert.

“The first thing he pulls out of the case is the bow. The tip and the frog you tune with are gold, and

it’s strung with white horsehair, and it’s like $400,000 by itself!

“First Felix just played with his fingers – no bow – and man, it was magical!. That’s the only word I can use to describe it, because it was way beyond words. His fingers just

danced across those strings. And he danced with the music. I mean,

it wasn’t like he was playing it. It was like he and the Stradi-varius and the music were all

one thing. Like they were all one being. It was amazing!

“Then he picked up the bow and it was even more incredible. Music at

that level isn’t something you listen to. It’s something you feel. It’s like a powerful paint-ing or sculpture. It isn’t just

something you look at. You feel it in your body. You feel it

in your mind. You feel it in your soul!

“You know, when people would ask me about music before I met

Felix, I’d always say my guys are Wil-lie Nelson and Waylon Jennings and Johnny Bush. But I’ll tell you what,

that day I became a Stradivarius fan.

“After Felix played that cello, I realized that if I had died without experiencing that, I would have really felt like I’d missed something.”

Gib Singleton

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