A few weeks ago, the Wellington Wind Symphony made a brief announcement on our social media channels that our percussion equipment is being replaced! Here we would like to shed a bit more light on the situation, and provide a further update.
Background information:
For many years, Wellington Wind Symphony’s percussion equipment was stored in a trailer. Sadly, this trailer was stolen on November 8, 2022. This loss was devastating. Not only was it a large amount of expensive inventory that was gone without a trace, the timing was awful: we had weeks to find replacement equipment before our Christmas concert that season.
Thankfully we live and make music in a community full of wonderful people. Many stepped up to help us through donations to a Go-Fund-Me, which was incredibly generous and helpful as we went through the process of replacing what was stolen. We really cannot thank community members enough for their outpouring of financial support at that time.
We were also very fortunate to have the Kitchener Musical Society Band step up in the most wonderful way. They provided their equipment for us to use for our concerts for the remainder of the 2022-2023 season, as well as the 2023-2024 season. This allowed us to breathe, and take the time needed to deal with insurance proceedings as well as sourcing/purchasing of new equipment. To members of the KMSB and the entire organization, we are all so very grateful for your friendship and support. This truly was an invaluable help to us as we went through the replacement process.
Moving forward:
Once insurance issues were dealt with and there was clarity around the claim amount, we unfortunately were not left with much time to make a purchase in the time frame allotted. Again, we were lucky to work with some wonderful people through this process. Andy and his team at Woodshed Percussion were fantastic to work with, and put in some extra hours when they should have been closed for New Years, to help source and order instruments in time. Not only did they work hard to meet our ridiculously tight timeline, they also found us incredible value wherever possible. The Wellington Wind Symphony is immensely grateful to Woodshed and its crew for all their hard work to allow us to bring home some beautiful new instruments!
On March 6th, 2024, our new gear began to roll into its new home! We were very fortunate to secure an arrangement with our rehearsal venue, and our gear will be locked up safely indoors from now on. This also means that we will be able to use our own gear for rehearsals, and the equipment will be safe from the elements. There are many things still on order and waiting to arrive, so we do not yet have a full complement set-up, but the wheels are in motion to make it happen.
At our final concert of the 2023-2024 season, we will be happily using quite a bit of our new gear. Come on out to hear our new xylophone, vibraphone and timpani in action!
And especially to hear our brand new bass drum go… Boomba!
