The man with the golden flute

Josh Kleinbaum

At first glance, the flute doesn’t seem unusual. Sure, it’s got a

gold shine to it, not the standard silver, but it could be made of

copper. A good ear might detect a difference in the sound, too, but

the average listener wouldn’t.

But for Justin Bahrami, the man with the golden flute, the

difference is not only tangible, it’s necessary.

“The quality of instrument can really make a difference in how it

sounds,” said Bahrami, the 20-year-old flutist who spent a small

fortune to buy a flute made out of 14-karat gold. “A gold flute has a

real specific sound that you can’t get on any other type. A silver

flute will never sound the same. There’s a certain warmth that the

gold gives to it.”

Bahrami, who just finished his junior year at the University of

Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music, ordered the flute more than four

years ago from Brannen Brothers, a Boston-based company that

specializes in flutes. The company has a two-year waiting list for

gold flutes, and takes six months to build their custom flutes, so

Bahrami received the flute about two years ago.

“To your average musician or person, it’s very rare to see one,”

said Bahrami, who graduated from La Canada High School in 2000. “But

they’re not uncommon in the professional flute world.”

Bahrami didn’t say how much the flute cost, saying simply, “You

could buy a car instead.” The cheapest gold flute on the Brannen

Brothers’ Web site costs $16,695.

But Bahrami has gotten plenty of mileage out of his flute. He’s

been playing the instrument -- well, not the instrument, but a

less-distinguished version of it -- since fourth grade, when he

joined the music program at La Canada Elementary School.

By sixth grade, he’d distinguished himself as a talented flutist,

and was selected to participate in an orchestra of children by the

Young Musician’s Foundation, and that performance was aired on the

Disney Channel.

This past February, he applied for the Yamaha Young Performing

Artist program, a program designed to honor outstanding musicians

between the ages of 16 and 21. Bahrami sent in a compact disc with

two pieces on it -- Hue’s “Fantasy” for flute and piano and

Hindemith’s “Eight Pieces” for the flute.

In June, Bahrami was notified he’d been selected as one of just

eight winners in the nationwide competition and the only flutist. The

winners spent a weekend at Illinois State University, taking master

classes and putting on a special performance.

Trips like that are becoming commonplace for Bahrami. He said he’s

taken 37 flights in the past year to travel for performances,

including trips to Miami, New York and Los Angeles.

“I dislike flying more and more,” Bahrami said. “My luggage got

lost when I went to Illinois. They found the luggage two days later.

Yamaha bought me a toothbrush.”

He didn’t lose the golden flute, though. That, he said, doesn’t

get checked.