It started with just one instrument, a fortepiano gifted to the Schubert Club, one of the oldest arts organizations in the country. Soon, more instruments arrived and several valuable keyboards were acquired to create one of the finest museum collections in the country.
Today, the Schubert Club Museum is located on the second floor of the Landmark Center in downtown Saint Paul. Open Wednesdays through Sundays, it’s always free. On display are a variety of instruments and manuscripts from the 17th to 21st centuries along with tantalizing stories and recordings of these instruments played by professional musicians.
But if learning and hearing is not enough, the newly renovated museum is fully interactive and invites visitors to make music of their own in the “Music Makers Zone.” You can press buttons to hear music and put sounds together, plus pick a few instruments and play along. KFAI producer and musician Alison Young takes us there.
