This past November, Florida trumpeter Paul Kurtz visited the Kanstul factory to talk about his work with Braille music notation as it relates to increasing access to music for fellow blind trumpet players and musicians in general.

Paul was in town to attend the ceremony for his induction into the 2017 International Educators Hall of Fame by the educational group Youth on the Move. The Kanstul family was also honored by the organization for their contributions to enhancing young people’s involvement in music.

He was joined by R. Dale Olson, renowned trumpet historian and brass designer who worked with Zig Kanstul for many years at F.E. Olds & Son, in a demonstration of the process of “sensory evaluation” of different trumpets, a methodology used by Dale for many years at Olds and other brassmakers.

For the evaluation testing with Paul, Dale uses three vintage trumpets which are involved in a very interesting story that he shares with us at the end.

Check out the video here.