Trombones from Markneukirchen – first produced by Knoth and today by B&S

Every last Sunday in August the renowned Musical Instrument Museum Markneukirchen celebrates the so called „Artisans’ Day”. On this day at the museum you can glance over the shoulder of artisans producing musical instruments. Of course you will hear a lot of music played on these instruments.
This special day gave the occasion to Gerhard A. Meinl, CEO of B&S, to donate a set of trombones made by Kurt Knoth to the museum. The workshop of Kurt Knoth became the workshop of his nephew Master Johannes Scherzer.
Much longer than East Germany lasted, Master Johannes Scherzer as trade name “RINO” used the nickname of his relative. As Kurt Knoth resembled the noble Italian brigand Rinaldo Rinaldini he was called Rino. Via diverse ways of the Combined Music enterprises the workshop Scherzer finally came to B&S where this famous workshop always was given a special autonomy.
To honour and not to forget this event Gerhard Meinl privately financed a set of trombones of a Markneukirchen musician and donated it to this museum. Because of an engraving with the designation VEB Sinfonia (People’s owned enterprise Sinfonia) it is assumed that the trombones date back to the early 60ies. Siegfried Baireuther (1932 to 2011) used to play them in the Symphony orchestra Reichenbach, this is today’s Vogtland-Philharmonie Greiz/Reichenbach. According to the wish of the deceased trombonist his widow offered the instruments to the museum.
The day of the donation had be chosen carefully as exactly on this last Sunday in August, after a company party, B&S had invited to its work shops. There the artisans were at work to demonstrate to 50 traders from all over Germany the big potential of the enterprise, even 20 years after its privatization.
On this occasion the head of the development department, Ferdinand Kleinschmidt, introduced the new B&S trombone series „Meistersinger“.  Beside the tenor trombone “Stolzing” the bass trombone “Sarastro” was presented. This new B&S trombones were introduced and demonstrated by the well-known Dresden trombone quartette “four-in-hand” under the direction of Prof. Olaf Krumpfer of the Music Academy Dresden. Frank van Nooy, the bass trombonist of the Semper Opera, proved the omnipotence of the new instrument.
Starting in Markneukirchen, Gerhard A. Meinl personally set off to visit bass trombonists at European Music Festivals to continue a field test to be able to finally market the bass trombone at the Music Fair at Frankfurt 2012. At Salzburg the trombone was tested by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and at Luzern it was tried by the Orchestra from Pittsburgh.
In October the trombones together with Professor Carl Lenthe of the Indiana University Bloomington, former musician at Bayerische Staatsoper and Bamberger Symphoniker, tour German Music Universities.