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...melody isn't quite so sweet, however, once you get below the very top end of the market. Sales of midlevel violins - those valued under $100,000 - have weakened like nearly everything else in the recession...
...Demand for student string instruments, including those valued under $10,000, has also suffered. "Like just about everyone in retail, our members have certainly been impacted by the recession," says Joe Lamond, CEO of the International Music Products Association, which represents instrument retailers. "Acoustic pianos and high-end guitars are discretionary purchases for most people, and in tough times these can be deferred until things look brighter." In such an environment, dealers are far more likely to offer discounts. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis...
That figure is now starting to fall. At the end of 2008, the debt-to-income ratio was down to 130%, and new numbers from the Federal Reserve on Thursday are sure to show another drop...
...market's high end, new funds have launched to capitalize on the opportunity to diversify into fine instruments. Florian Leonhard, a London-based violin expert and dealer, is gathering more than $50 million for the Fine Violins Fund, aiming to buy as many as 50 old Italian instruments. Leonhard isn't alone in his confidence in the market. Emigrant Bank Fine Art Finance lends large sums of money using violins and cellos as collateral. And former concert violinist Staffan Borseman has established Stradivari Invest to advise big investors on the purchase of top instruments...
...owls, it turned out, averaged a 2.84 GPA at the end of their freshman year. Larks and robins both averaged 3.18. That means high-quality sleep may have contributed to one group of students' B average, while inadequate shut-eye pushed owls into the C range. Peszka also compared the students' high school GPAs with their college scores, and found that owls had lost an entire GPA point once entering college - larks and robins also saw their grades drop (a common phenomenon as students transition from high school to university), but not as much. "Not only did they flat...