Bardi Timps get a much-needed makeover

28th May 2021

Our Timpani are top of the range Premier Elite instruments, but they are twenty-five years old and have given sterling service over that time. One of the things that we, in common with many other orchestras, have been looking at over the lockdown months is the need for refurbishment; just as one’s GP sends out an invite for a health MOT, or the family car needs a service, so did our timps!

Through the good offices of our percussion team, a range of repairs and improvements have been carried out. After careful examination we were sent some very startling photos of the somewhat decrepit insides of the instruments and some very sensible suggestions for repair and upgrade. Maybe some little good has come out of the pandemic – we would have found it difficult to fit in a trip to the repairers for those timps if we had been undertaking our usual programme.

Thanks to the generosity of the T S Shipman Trust and some of our other supporters who contributed to the refurbishment of the timpani, they are now back and looking good for another 20 years. The repairer has done an outstanding job and our Orchestra Manager failed to recognise them when they were returned. To finish our percussion spruce-up we felt it necessary to purchase new covers for some of the other instruments and a new chair for our timpanist – the old one had a very high mileage and was in danger of becoming a health and safety hazard!

If you would like to support the orchestra to help with similar projects, please do get in touch and join the Bardi family.

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