“I am instructed by my dean to have no communication with the press.”

That was the response of the usually chatty Steve Ball when the Observer asked about the response to a widely circulated Associated Press story–one in which the U-M music prof fretted publicly about the neglect of the university’s collection of historic musical instruments.

In addition to being the U-M’s carillonneur and staff organist at the Michigan Theater, Ball is curator of the Stearns Collection. Originally donated in 1899 by wealthy Detroit drug manufacturer Frederick Stearns and expanded over the years, it encompasses 2,500 items that range from a 300-year-old viola da gamba to an early Moog synthesizer. In the AP article–headlined “Silenced musical treasures languish in Mich. Vault”–Ball estimated its value at $25 million.

AnnArbor. com reprinted the story with dramatic photos: Ball turning the pages of a huge seventeenth-century book of Gregorian chants and holding a beautiful early violin. Reporter Jeff Karoub quoted the curator as saying, “This is a national treasure–it deserves the dignity of either being properly housed … or to be dispersed in such a way that it could be.”

An indignant reader who saw the story on the Huffington Post agreed: “SHAME on them for sitting on the treasures and letting them deteriorate … If THEY cannot do a proper job, I am POSITIVE that the Indiana University School of Music could …”

Ball “sort of shot himself in the foot” by going public, says Chris Dempsey, a former assistant curator of the collection. Dempsey, who wrote his dissertation on the Stearns, doubts Ball’s valuation–“my estimate is $5 million”–but says he understands his frustration. The collection has been shuffled from place to place on the U-M campus for decades, with some instruments damaged in the process. Though select pieces are on display at the music school and at Hill Auditorium, most are stored in an old factory near downtown.

Damage control fell to music dean Christopher Kendall. “We were in touch with people just for assuring them that the collection is safe and secure,” says the soft-spoken administrator, while a PR staffer takes notes. “There are many people who care a lot about the collection.” Kendall says the school has been working to design a bigger, humidity-controlled storage space, a move he expects to see completed at the end of this year. They’re also looking for ways to supplement the existing displays at the School of Music building and Hill Auditorium. Kendall praises Ball–who is untenured–for his “care and passion,” noting that he has “completely digitized the collection,” putting nearly 13,000 images of the collection online.

Karoub, who also wrote about other “orphan” collections, was surprised at the ruckus the story caused–and insists that he didn’t ambush anyone. “There was nothing underhanded and/or secretive about it,” he says in a quick phone interview. “People spoke freely and on the record. It wasn’t ‘gotcha’ journalism.”

Another former curator, ethnomusicologist William Malm, also has concerns. “It is a really impressive collection that has been handled as orphans,” says Malm, who retired in 1995. “I feel a little sad about the Stearns Collection.”