Who owns Clara Rockmore's Theremin?

Posted: 5/25/2005 1:50:35 PM
Charlie D

From: England

Joined: 2/28/2005

This may sound like a pretty silly thing for me to ask, but where is Clara's famous theremin now- the one specially built for her? I'm sure I read about it somewhere, but I couldn't find anything on the internet.
Posted: 5/25/2005 7:06:22 PM
Etherspiel

From: Los Angeles

Joined: 3/8/2005

I believe Reid Welch owns it.
Posted: 5/28/2005 2:21:13 PM
TomFarrell

From: Undisclosed location without Dick Cheney

Joined: 2/21/2005

I don't think so, IIRC the current owner is a woman who was a friend of Clara's...
Posted: 5/28/2005 2:58:04 PM
Charlie D

From: England

Joined: 2/28/2005

Hmm. It says on the Thereminworld website that Reid Welch was indeed a friend of Mrs. Rockmore herself. She appears in this photo:

http://www.thereminworld.com/pics/gallery/ReidWelch/reidwelch.jpg

If she does indeed own one of Clara's theremins (no doubt she got through several), it may spring back into recall when she passes it on to the next of kin. This is quite confusing- you'd have thought that there'd be a lot more information on the whereabouts of the most famous theremin in history. I was merely interested in finding out if it is being played by anyone at the moment, lying disused in a museum case, or worse still just lying disused in someone's home.
Posted: 6/30/2005 9:12:06 PM
Jason

From: Hillsborough, NC (USA)

Joined: 2/13/2005

Reid is a he, not a she :)

I don't exactly recall who got the theremin, but I believe it was a distant relative of Ms. Rockmore. I also vaguely recall that Reid was hoping it would be donated to a museum such as Caramoor, but alas, it never came to be. It's a real shame that an instrument of that historical significance is in a private collection somewhere... or maybe a blessing, depending on your point of view.
Posted: 7/1/2005 2:32:36 AM
Charlie D

From: England

Joined: 2/28/2005

Oh silly me. Perhaps it'll be rediscovered when this distant relative dies? Anyway. Thanks for answering the question, I was just intrigued to know whether someone like Peter Pringle had it or something- whether it was being played regularly or not.

Posted: 4/17/2006 1:18:53 AM
Reid Welch

Joined: 1/7/2006

[i]Hmm. It says on the Thereminworld website that Reid Welch was indeed a friend of Mrs. Rockmore herself. She appears in this photo:[/i]
http://www.thereminworld.com/pics/gallery/ReidWelch/reidwelch.jpg

Hi, well that's me, but [i]she's[/i] not Clara.
The elderly woman in that photo is the late Bernice Caster, a lifelong friend. Picture dates from 1994.

cheers,
Reid




Posted: 4/18/2006 2:28:27 PM
omhoge

From: Kingston, NY

Joined: 2/13/2005

For the full discussion please see:
Forums - Topic: "Who owns Clara Rockmore's theremin"
http://www.thereminworld.com/forum.asp?cmd=p&T=1624&F=1

This one (the one w/o quotes) turned out to be a duplicate thread.
hth

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