Trumpets and Other High Brass Series Now Complete!

A Private Treasure Turned Public: Working with the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection of High Brass Instruments

by Sabine K. Klaus, Professor Emerita, University of South Dakota

Purchase two or more books in the Trumpets and Other High Brass series and receive a 20% discount! *Discount is only applicable on TOHB books, all other items are excluded.

Bold decisions bear extraordinary chances. When in 1999 NMM founding director Dr. André P. Larson asked me whether I would consider a position as Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Curator of Brass Instruments at the then Shrine to Music Museum, I was torn. At that point, I was working my way up through projects and assistant curatorships in Nuremberg, Basel and Vienna with the ultimate goal to land a permanent curator position in a nice European city. Even though I had spent a year as research fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1995–96, a career in the United States was not on my radar, let alone in a small university town in the Midwest. Yet, the actual project to catalog and research an outstanding collection of over 600 high brass instruments was very tempting. The ultimate goal of the job to publish “a book based on the Utley Collection describing in detail the history of the family of high brass instruments” promised to be an extraordinary opportunity. A quarter of a century later this goal has come to fruition with the completion of the five-volume book series Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, published by the National Music Museum in 2012, 2013, 2017, 2022, and 2024.

But how would life in rural America suit me? An American friend in Basel, who had a cousin living in South Carolina, where most of the Utley Collection was based until 2020, got me hooked with the comment that the climate was lovely in the Carolinas and daffodils bloomed in February. I agreed to fly from Basel to Omaha, where I was picked up and driven to Vermillion for a job interview. The following two days André and I went on one of his famous road trips cross-country from South Dakota to South Carolina, passing through the beautiful Appalachian Mountains. After being warmly greeted by Joe and Joella Utley and seeing the set-up at their home, built around the trumpet collection, filled with shelves on which they were neatly displayed, and their guesthouse in which I would live and work, the decision was made: I would move to South Carolina to catalog 600+ trumpets!

Sabine K. Klaus holding miniature horn NMM 7213 by Johann Wilhelm Haas, Nuremberg 1681, in the Utley Residence in South Carolina, 2008. Photo: Mark Olencki.

When I arrived at the Utley residence in April 2000, my first job was to synchronize Joe Utley’s cataloging system, consecutively numbered with basic descriptions for each instrument, with the numbers that had been assigned by the National Music Museum. Joe knew by heart where each instrument was in his house, while I set up a location system, so objects could be easily retrieved. Later I made a detailed with drawings so colleagues could easily access the collection in the event of my absence, not knowing the crucial role this document would eventually play during the COVID pandemic. Years of detailed cataloguing followed, including acoustical analysis with a computer system that allowed me to assess the pitch and degree of functionality of each instrument without playing it—museum friendly.

Early on, I shopped around to find the right photographer in nearby Spartanburg to document the collection. Most local photographers specialized in the wedding business, but there was one photographer, Mark Olencki, with whom Joe had worked previously for a temporary exhibition. At the time of my visit to his studio, Mark photographed plastic containers for advertising purposes, and I instantly knew, he was my man, able to create attractive and informative object photography. Mark set up a photo studio in the basement of the Utley Residence and off we went! Many instruments required some cleaning before they could be photographed, and I turned from curator to conservator and cleaner. The cataloging and photography projects became the basis for all subsequent work: articles, eMuseum webpages, and the book series Trumpets and Other High Brass.

Joe and Joella built their retirement home in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains around their trumpet collection with the intention to have guests visit to see their treasures. After Joe’s early death in January 2001, Joella continued to open her house for local church groups, students of nearby colleges, including the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, and societies in the field of musical instruments. A particular highlight was the Early Brass Festival in 2007 that brought performers from far and wide to record about 60 selected instruments to accompany the book series and eventually be available in exhibitions and online. The project was conducted by recording engineer Martin Aigner in Spartanburg. Another highlight was the visit of British trumpeter Crispian Steele-Perkins in 2009, whose recording session was combined with a house concert.

Joella Utley welcoming participants of the Early Brass Festival to her home in 2007. Photo: Mark Olencki.

Some instruments in South Carolina that had never been shown publicly were presented in the traveling exhibition Trumpets Weird and Wonderful: Treasures from the National Music Museum which I organized to be shown at the Morris Museum in Morristown, New Jersey, in 2018–19 and the Carolina Music Museum (now Sigal Music Museum) in Greenville, South Carolina, in 2019–20.

Sabine handing keyed trumpet NMM 7161 by Joseph Greenhill, London, to trumpeter Crispian Steele-Perkins to be demonstrated in a concert at the Utley Residence in 2009. Photo: Mark Olencki.

After Joella’s death in July 2019, the Utley Collection was packed up and moved to the Center for Research and Preservation in Vermillion. I started packing all the instruments with cases in February 2020 not knowing the seismic global changes that were to come. The collection was finally moved by Rodger Kelly and Denis Acrea in June 2020 during the height of the pandemic.

The final highlight of my work with the Utley Collection was my involvement in the new permanent display at the National Music Museum, which includes some Utley instruments in the first-floor galleries and will present many more in the planned second floor exhibitions, which include a Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Gallery.

Installation of the traveling exhibition Trumpets Weird and Wonderful with the help of harpsichord maker Malcolm Rose at the Sigal Music Museum (then Carolina Music Museum) in Greenville, South Carolina, in 2019. Photo: Alexandra Cade.

It was an extraordinary journey that led me to a deep understanding of brass instruments and provided me with a social home in the community of brass enthusiasts. It made me fall in love with the Carolinas and appreciate the charms and fascinations of South Dakota. Close friendships, especially with the late Joella Utley and all the support I received from the Utley Foundation and all my colleagues at the NMM make me look back with deep gratitude. The satisfaction of a long and complex project accomplished and a secure future for the Utley Collection guaranteed fill me with joy. My bold decision paid off!