Surrey Long & McQuade Auctions Painted Instruments for Music Therapy

A couple years ago, Bryan Faber, the acoustic and vintage instruments specialist at the Surrey, BC Long & McQuade location, had an idea of what do to do with a few unusable guitars he had at the shop. He called up a few of his artist friends in the community and had them paint the instruments. The works of art were then sold and the proceeds went to the BC Children’s Hospital’s music therapy program. It made sense as music therapy is a cause that Long & McQuade has long supported in British Columbia and across the country. Since then, the painted instrument fundraiser has continued to grow. Last year, Yorkville Sound donated a few c-stock Epiphone guitars, which were again painted and auctioned off, raising enough money to hire another full-time music therapist for the music therapy program, which operates solely no donations.

For 2014, Faber reached out to Korg Canada about getting some white Korg tinyPIANOs, as the recently launched product would be the perfect canvas. “[Korg] said that they would love to and gave us a few at an incredibly reduced cost and it has been almost a year in the making, but we got five white Korg tinyPIANOs and then we had five baritone ukuleles,” Faber tells CMT. The artists this year include local painters, tattoo artists, bands, and Ontario-based, nationally acclaimed painter Ivan Wheale.

“It’s something that Long & McQuade holds very near and dear to their hearts,” says Faber. “Obviously music is the universal language and something that everybody relates to. It is something that you can do without any form of vocal communication and it heals your spirit and heals the soul.”

The auction is now open and closes on Dec. 23. To view and bid on the items, contact Surrey’s Long & McQuade (13785 104 Ave., Surrey, BC, V3T 1W6) at 604-588-9421. More info can also be found at www.facebook.com/LongMcQuadeSurrey.

For more information about music therapy, you can visit www.friendsofmusictherapy.com.