This May, two students at UK’s College of Fine Arts were put into an incredibly stressful situation. Their on-campus lockers were broken into, and their instruments were stolen. 

“I felt so targeted and anxious because there were lockers that still had locks on them. It was just Colleen and mine that were gone, along with our instruments,” doctorate student JuRang Kim said. “It is such a trauma that impacts our daily lives.”  

The items stolen in the May 12 incident included Kim’s violin and junior Colleen Scott’s oboe. Scott also lost 18 reeds that were in her oboe case, which were a representation of how far she had come in her music education and career. 

“Every time I sit down to work on reeds, I think about how a part of me has been stolen, and how violated and heartbroken I feel.” Scott said.

The two women are doing everything they can to be able to find their instruments, along with receiving some help from the Lexington Police Department. 

“There is a detective involved, so I’m hoping they can find something from online resources, which all the pawn shops have to report each day,” Kim said. “Other than that, my friends and I are checking Facebook Marketplace, eBay and Craigslist. There are still no leads.” 

Scott is doing the same, scouring the internet for any information the two can find. 

Other than the anxiety and loss these women faced from losing instruments they had strong emotional connections to, Scott said they are disappointed in UK’s lack of financial response to the incident. 

“We met with the dean of the College of Fine Arts, and he was so gracious and kind in our meeting,” Scott said. “He shared our concerns about there being no security cameras in the building and understood our pain, but there hasn’t been a solid answer about availability of funds.” 

 Kim and Scott were told that there will be no financial help in recovering or replacing their instruments, and there is still no talk on installing security cameras, though they believe that should be a priority considering the expensive instruments in the building. 

To combat this, Kim and Scott have set up a GoFundMe. They are extremely grateful, but their current funds would only pay for the deductible of one of the bows from UK, with all three bows costing about $10,000, stolen from Kim.

 Though the students haven’t been able to play since getting their instruments stolen, they still reminisce together on previous performances, gathering positivity and support in the midst of a stressful scenario. 

“We were glad to have each other, because it is so hard to understand the pain if you have not experienced it,” Kim said. “I am so grateful that [Scott] has been such a wise and sweet friend to me. We are stronger together.”

Kim and Scott are currently looking back on their recent performance of Brahms’s Symphony No. 2. They plan to make a violin-oboe duet as soon as they get their instruments back.