CRENSHAW : Burglary Jeopardizes Future of Music Class

An October burglary that claimed an estimated $113,000 in instruments and other equipment may force the Eubanks Conservatory of Music and Arts to cease offering a specialized music course that focuses on non-European cultures.

The Oct. 31 break-in virtually wiped out the school’s “ethno-musicology” department, which relied heavily on 46 instruments from a variety of cultures that president and founder Rachel Eubanks painstakingly gathered during world travels over 30 years.

The instruments were stolen from glass cabinets in the studio where Eubanks teaches piano, theory and composition. An IBM computer and a synthesizer were also taken.

“I was just destroyed when I came in to teach that Saturday morning and saw everything gone,” said Eubanks, who said she was so devastated by the Oct. 31 incident that she stayed home for a week after the theft. “I was sick at heart for a long time. Now, I have hope that someone might come forward.”

The ethnomusicology class was scheduled to resume next month, but its future is in doubt because of the thefts.

Eubanks said it would cost about $90,000 to replace the instruments, many of which were rare and acquired through extensive negotiations with people in New Guinea, Thailand and other countries.

The burglars “were very selective,” said Eubanks, shaking her head as she held photos given to police of the missing goods. “A lot of these instruments aren’t even seen in books.”

Police said the burglars broke security locks and apparently pried open wooden doors with crowbars to loot 14 rooms in the conservatory, housed in two old buildings that include a library, music supply store, rehearsal rooms, music lab, several studios and small recital halls. There have been no arrests in the crime.

Eubanks has offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the instruments, which include a a barrel drum from Burma, bamboo pan-pipes from South America and a goat-skin bagpipe from Africa.

Other classes in the conservatory, founded in 1951 at Figueroa and 47th streets and established on Crenshaw Boulevard 10 years later, have continued. In addition to classical and jazz training in voice, dance and a wide range of instruments, it also offers two-year, four-year and graduate music degrees.

But with so many essential instruments gone, Eubanks said she is not certain whether ethnomusicology courses will resume next month.

“It would be marvelous to be able to replace the instruments, of course,” said Eubanks, somewhat wistfully. “But that would cost so much, not to mention all the effort that went into it. No, I just don’t think so.”