Congratulations Brenda Neece, winner of the "What's Your Smithsonian Story" contest! Thank you to everyone who entered the contest. We were inspired by your Smithsonian experiences. Here is Brenda's winning story about the passion of her life, discovered here at the Smithsonian: Brenda Neece among the collections at the Duke University Musical Instrument Collections My Smithsonian story is really part of the story of one of the greatest passions of my life: musical instruments. When I was ten, my class took a field trip to the National Museum of American History, and we saw the musical instrument exhibit. There I fell in love with the "Servais" Stradivari cello. I told my classmates that one day I would play that cello, and that "it will be mine." Of course they laughed, and the "Servais" will never be mine, but in a sense, this statement predicted the course of my life. The Servais cello that sparked Brenda's passion for music, click to find out more about it I went on to specialize in the history of the cello, completing an undergraduate research project on cellos (including studying the "Servais" and playing it!), followed by a cello performance master's degree, and finally a doctorate on cello history at the University of Oxford. Now I curate a musical instrument museum at Duke University – the Duke University Musical Instrument Collections (DUMIC). Now I am the keeper of many instruments, including an early American cello.  The Duke University Musical Instrument Collections That school trip nearly 30 years ago shaped the whole course of my life. The "Servais" sparked my life's passion for musical instrument history, in particular that of the cello, and led to my career as a curator of instruments. In that sense, by devoting my life to the work of keeping these instruments safe for the next generation while making them accessible to inspire the present, I have made at least the idea of the "Servais" – mine.