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Donor’s ‘treasured’ cello made available for students

Craig Purdy, professor of violin and director of orchestras for the Boise State Department of Music along with Patricia Young who donated a cello to the Boise State Chamber Music Society for student use in the music department.
Craig Purdy, professor of violin and director of orchestras for the Boise State Department of Music with Patricia Young who donated a cello to the Boise State Chamber Music Society for student use in the music department.

Patricia Young, a longtime subscriber of the Boise Chamber Music Society, generously donated her treasured cello to the society through the Boise State University Foundation.

“I just want someone to love it,” Young said. She donated the cello for use by a cello student in the Boise State Department of Music.

Young studied cello in grade school, and after a hiatus of many years, requested a cello from her husband, Judge Byron Johnson, for her fiftieth birthday. She took lessons and participated in Sam Smith’s Cello and Martial Arts Camp in Stanley for three years and also played in Amy Burkholder’s, a Boise State music alum, string ensemble in Idaho City. Young eventually donated that original cello to the Idaho City public school music program run by Boise State music alum Warren Barnes.

In 2001, Young purchased another instrument: a full-size Illner Riedl cello, built in Bubenreuth, Germany in 1998, and valued at $10,000, from Telford and Sons in Boise. Young has donated this cello to be used by Boise State students.