Chinatown Strad may fetch $18 million

Sotheby’s is selling the 1714 ’Joachim-Ma’ Stradivarius violin in Feburary, with estimates ranging from $12m to $18 million. All proceeds will go to the New England Consevatory of Music (NEC).

The owner’s life story is instructive.

Ma Si-hon, who died in September 2009, was president of the Si-Yo Music Society which presented chamber music concerts in New York’s Chinatown from 1971, later upgrading to Lincoln Center, where they performed with major names until 2004. Ma himself performed on a Stradivarius violin which is thought to be the one Joseph Joachim played at the premiere of the Brahms Violin Concerto.

Ma was born near Canton, China, on April 3, 1925, reaching the US in 1948. He took a Masters at the New England Conservatory and played in the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell, before joining pianist Tung Kwong-Kwong as a touring duo, appearing at the Salzburg and Dartington Festivals and the Far East.

In 1958, Ma invented a vastly improved mute for stringed instruments, the Si-Hon Mute. From 1971 to 1994, he was a professor of music at Kent State University in Ohio. He bequethed the Strad in his will to NEC, his alma mater.

NEC president Andrea Kalyn said: ’After years of individual use by our students, now, we can establish the largest student scholarship programme in the history of NEC, honouring our mission to educate and train the next generation of musicians.’

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