Students take a once-in-a-lifetime factory tour of Zildjian

By kcornuel (32)

The Zildjian cymbal factory isn’t normally open to visitors.

But a group of Boston University percussion students got the chance to see how hand cymbals are made before selecting more than $20,000 of equipment donated to the [...]University’s music program by Zildjian, a company that makes world-renowned cymbals at its factory in Norwell, Mass.

Zildjian has been making cymbals since 1623, when Avedis Zildjian, an Armenian alchemist in Constantinople, hit upon the combination of copper, tin, and traces of silver that gives the company’s instruments their unique sound quality. In Ottoman Turk, the family name, bestowed on Avedis by the Sultan, literally is synonymous with cymbal smithing. In the centuries since, Zildjian cymbals have become the world standard.

Read the story on BU Today: /today/node/10125
More info