Famous saxophone goes missing from Vancouver's Orpheum theatre
Chris Startup was given Ross Taggart's Selmer Mark VI five years ago before icon's untimely death
The owner of a famous saxophone would like it back after it vanished from the stage of a downtown theatre in Vancouver on Friday.
The tenor saxophone once belonged to Ross Taggart who died five years ago from cancer. Taggart was a well-known and well-loved jazz musician and a big part of Vancouver's and Canada's jazz scene.
The saxophone's current owner, Chris Startup, 55, is a musician who was set to play a series of concerts with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, starting Friday, using the instrument.
But it disappeared after a mid-day rehearsal at the Orpheum Theatre on Granville Street.
Startup participated in a rehearsal on Friday which ended around 1 p.m. PT. He left the saxophone on stage with other instruments, but when he returned at 7 p.m. it was gone.
"I was pretty panicked," said Startup, who played a gig that evening. "It was pretty surprising."
Before he died, Taggart gave Startup his Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone. The two met in the mid-1980s when Taggart moved to B.C.
Startup has been playing saxophone for 37 years.
Worth up to $15,000
"For obvious reasons it has huge sentimental value for me," he said, adding the saxophone could be worth as much as $15,000 because it was made in the 1950s.
The horns left on stage after the rehearsal were close to a stage door according to Startup.
"I think perhaps it was maybe the most cosmetically appealing that whoever took it saw there," said Startup about Taggart's horn. "It was basically an opportunity."
Startup was unable to play one song Friday night because he didn't have the saxophone, he's now found a back-up tenor for Saturday night's concert.
He plays alto saxophone during the concerts as well.
He says playing the concerts is stressful, thinking about Taggart's horn.
"I can't think of a time when I've been more distracted before a concert," he said.
Please return it
Vancouver Police say the instrument has been reported missing and they will investigate its disappearance.
Startup says he is also working with security at the Orpheum to see if closed-circuit cameras recorded anyone leaving the building with the sax.
The instrument was stolen without its case and had a Bob Ackerman-style black hand rubber mouthpiece.
Startup hopes that by spreading the message over social media, the person who took the saxophone will return it.
