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Chris and Whitney Luther, along with the team at Luther Strings in Denver, play an essential role in BMTL’s mission to equip school music programs across Colorado with the instruments they need to keep music thriving. Their behind-the-scenes expertise ensures that donated string instruments are repaired and restored, ready for students’ hands. To spotlight the incredible work that makes our mission possible, we’re excited to feature our repair and drop-off partners. Enjoy!
How long have you been involved with Bringing Music to Life, and what is your role in the instrument donation/repair process?
We are happy to be a drop-off location for BMTL since 2021. In 2022, we became the repair location for all bowed orchestral instruments. I'm fortunate to have founded Luther Strings in 2018, and I love managing every aspect of the shop, including being hands-on with the instruments! As an educator and professional violinist and violist, I can assess a customer's instrument from a player's perspective. I get to play around with small things that make an instrument sound its very best!
As a business that is rooted in the Colorado music education community, why is Bringing Music to Life needed?
If you picture the 9,500 instruments distributed by Bringing Music to Life as seedlings, with each one taking root in a classroom somewhere in Colorado, you can begin to imagine how dramatically that would transform our state’s landscape. Our vision at Luther Strings is simple: our world is a better place when more people play music. I'm biased, but I think the bowed instruments (violin, viola, cello, and bass) are the most amazing instruments in the history of music. The violin family was mostly perfected 500 years ago, resulting in an unbroken, rich history and tradition! Every instrument is one-of-a-kind because every piece of wood is different. Materials and ingredients were needed from at least four continents in the 1500s; modern instruments today require materials from up to six continents!!
What is the most interesting instrument and/or story you've come across through BMTL?
Dropping off instruments is bittersweet for many of the kind people who donate to the organization. Their greatest wish is for the instrument to come back to life in a new home. We don't often think, "Why is that the specific desire?" I believe the memories are so beautiful—filled with great challenge, success, and failure—that they are completely blended with the instrument. The owner hopes these same memories will greatly enrich the next recipient's life as well. It's like handing off a family friend who always has your best interests in mind, knowing that family friend can now help you become a better person.
Have you ever come across one of the instruments you've repaired "in the wild?" Can you share that story?
I have come across many instruments in the wild! It is such an interesting experience to be the previous chapter in that instrument's life. It's like sending kids off to college: you wish them well and hope all of the work you put in keeps them healthy and strong for the demands of the next season of life! I'm so grateful for the past and so excited for the future of music in Colorado with BMTL.
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