Arriving in Phoenix early enough to visit the MIM was a special treat for so many reasons. The MIM by the way is the acronym for Musical Instrument Museum. This museum is an world class facility and an architectural “tour de force” both esthetically and acoustically. What made this visit even more special is the fact that Michael is a MIM volunteer and tour guide (check out his photo on the cover of the MIM Volunteer flyer). Michael’s specialty is conducting tours for the many school field trips that take place at the museum.
As many of you know my brother Michael spent his entire professional life in education and most of that career was in administration as a Superintendent at several school districts. But his real passion was working with children as he did for several years at the beginning of his career, and his work at the MIM allows him to reconnect with children at a level he not only enjoys but at which he absolutely excels.
The museum is designed in such a fashion that it has displays for specific genre’s of music, and artists including many legacy instruments used by those artists (a GREAT jazz and blues section in which they have Stevie Ray Vaughn’s guitar!). Check out the photo at the end of the posted photos of Roy Orbison’s original hand-written lyrics to “Pretty Woman”! Above and beyond all that the museum has many displays in nine distinct galleries that highlight the instruments of all continents and peoples. All of this is accompanied by very high quality video presented via personalized Bluetooth headphones for self guided tours. The quality and detail of the presentations are truly stunning.
Besides being able to tour the many displays with the guidance of Mike we were also treated to a one day only appearance and live concert by “Mariachi Juvenile mi Tierra”. To say this group was immensely talented is an understatement. That, and the acoustics in the hall they performed in were fantastic making their performance truly memorable!
Michael knew that both John and I would be enthralled by the MIM and that we would want to return, so he had purchased two day passes for us both. And return we did Monday morning before heading north to Flagstaff. I believe based on the time I was there and what I was able to see, that it would take at least a week to fully enjoy all the museum has to offer. Suffice it to say that I will return in the future to enjoy much more of this wonderful museum.
