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Carolin Widmann Forced To Carry Bare Guadagnini Violin on Airplane
German violinist Carolin Widmann was forced to remove her 1782 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin from its case and carry the bare instrument in her arms on a set of Lufthansa flights from Helsinki via Frankfurt to Leipzig. "No argument helped, and I was forced to fly home, holding my bare, naked Guadagnini violin wrapped in my sweater in my arms," Widman wrote on her Instagram page. "In the 25 years of my professional career, I often had to negotiate or discuss with airlines and staff," she said, but this was the first time she was met with such fierce resistance. The incident unfolded at Helsinki Vantaa airport in Finland, where she arrived on Friday morning after performing in a concert with the Tapiola Sinfonietta in Espoo, Finland, the night before. "As a violin soloist, I fly to most of my approximately 60 International concerts per year with this company," Widmann wrote. "I (or the promoters) spend quite a large share of my fee on plane tickets and I have a Senator status as a frequent traveler. At the airport, she was told by the Lufthansa representative at the check-in counter that her standard-size violin case exceeded the measurements allowed as cabin baggage on their flights.
