Instrument Repair
Investing in a Sustainable Future for Haitian Music Schools: Expanding Instrument Repair Training
BLUME Haiti's instrument repair workshops are more than just fixes – they're keys to long-term sustainability for music schools across the country. By training local technicians and luthiers, we ensure schools have access to the crucial skills to maintain their instruments, keeping music alive for countless children. As of late 2023, nearly 200 individuals have gained basic repair skills for both strings and band instruments.
In partnership with Luthiers sans Frontières (LSF, UK branch), MusicFund (Belgium), the Rotary Club of Naperville, and others, we invest in both string and band instrument repair training. We hope that in 2024 we will be able to host a piano repair technician as well, rounding out our offerings in this area.
The very first LSF mission to Haiti was in 2008 and saw a team of three luthiers, including the then vice-principal of the famed Newark School of Violin Making and two of that school’s advanced students, come to Haiti for a total of three weeks. This initial success sparked eight more missions, including four consecutive years of intensive training and support.
In 2016 part of the teaching staff included “Tchoupy, a Haitian luthier, trained not only through the LSF missions but who, thanks to MusicFund, also had the opportunity to spend several months in Cremona, the cradle of violin making. Tchoupy is now a fully professional luthier himself and has invested a great deal of time and energy in teaching others the craft of lutherie. Little by little, we are now seeing a group of committed professionals come into being across Haiti. Remarkably, Haiti is now home to four highly professional luthiers!
Garri working on a violin with Ronaldo at the 2018 Sainte Trinité summer camp.
Now, we are committed to bringing the same level of support to band instrument repair technicians. Thanks to our longstanding partnership with MusicFund, the Rotary Club of Naperville, and others, we have also invested a great deal in the area of band instrument repair. We have launched a series of band instrument repairs seminars with Haitian instructor, Herold Jean Pierre. Initially a student and teacher at the CEMUCHCA Institute of Music in Cap Haitian, Herold is now based in the capital of Port-au-Prince. Thanks to MusicFund, Herold was able to spend several months in France and Belgium apprenticing to several band instrument repair technicians. Through the combined efforts of many, he has a fairly well-equipped workshop and has shown himself to be a very organized, thorough teacher.
A born teacher, Herold, along with his European mentors, developed a three-module training series covering the fundamentals of band instrument repair. This series will be offered across all Haitian departments, empowering music programs to train local repair technicians. We'll continue to provide needed tools and supplies as funding allows.
While the pandemic temporarily delayed our plans for broader instrument repair seminars, the vision remains. Our ultimate goal: a national vocational school dedicated to instrument repair. The talent and passion exist in Haiti, and we've even secured land near Cap Haitian. Now, we just need financial support to make this dream a reality.
Grafield Hylaris, aka Tchoupy, is a master teacher and luthier. At the CEMUCHCA Institute of Music in Cap Haitian he, truly, does a bit of everything! The main string teacher, Tchoupy also conducts the band and orchestra, has his own jazz combo and teaches lutherie to a number of eager students from the entire north of Haiti. We met Tchoupy on our first visit to Cap Haitian in 2009 and by the very next year recognized his tremendous drive and eagerness.
In addition to taking LSF summer seminars starting in 2010, and being recognized as a teacher at these seminars in 2016, Music Fund also arranged for him to spend several weeks in Cremona, Italy - the cradle of violin-making. BLUME Haiti has hired Tchoupy as our head luthier and string teacher and he will be the lead luthier at our proposed Vocational School of Instrument Repair.
An experienced music teacher in his own right, Herold Jean-Pierre attended his first LSF workshop in 2012 and participated in several more after that. He was also a participant in MusicFund band instrument repair workshops in 2014 and 2016. Music Fund sent Herold to Belgium and France for advanced training in all aspects of string and band instrument repair in both 2019 and 2023. With these skills in hand, in 2021 BLUME Haiti hired Herold to be oversee all aspects of our band instrument repair programs and he not only to repairs instruments for our partner programs but also, most importantly, he is deeply engaged in TEACHING others the skills needed to maintain the stock of instruments of music schools around the country. Over 120 students have participated in the first of three instrument repair modules Herold created. In early 2024 he will begin offering the second repair module throughout the country.