Cymbalsmith Peter Nelson works on a cymbal on a lathe at the Zildjian cymbal factory in Norwell, Mass.
“There’s a lot of mystique and a lot of history at this facility,” said Joe Mitchell, the company's director of operations, as we walked past loud, hulking machinery. He’s one of the few privy to a Zildjian process that’s been shrouded in mystery since the height of the Ottoman Empire. It begins in a room that’s off-limits to the public.“Behind this door is where we have our foundry,” Mitchell explained. “This is where we melt our metal and where we pour our castings.
Zildjian became synonymous with cymbals after her grandfather Avedis III, an ethnic Armenian, emigrated to the U.S. in 1909. Two decades later he re-located the family’s cymbal business from Turkey to Quincy, Massachusetts with his uncle. “For us, it was very natural on the inside, but the music industry had a hard time accepting women in the business,” Debbie said. “The players were all men, manufacturing was done mostly by men, the salespeople were all men.”
“Your cymbals are your signature,” she explained. “So whenever you play, you're generally recognized by your cymbal sound, and your touch, and your cymbal patterns — at least in jazz.”