You need to see a tax professional. No one here can advise you unless they are a tax professional for their day job. I know you can deduct expenditures without showing a profit (though it raises a red flag with the IRS) but you have to show paper trail.

Any accountant worth their salt should be able to help you out. The music business is just like any other - you have to keep records of all of your income and all of the expenses. All of the things you've listed are potentially legitimate expenses, just have all of your receipts / records organized and contact a local tax professional.

Generally, if this is your first year in biz, your uncle is understanding that you're going to have start up costs.
Everything should be paid by the company. If you bought something under your name you can't deduct it from your personal tax but you might be able to sell it to the company.
But as John above mentioned, you're going to need an accountant as the rules change from year to year. I would think that NY is riddled with them. You don't necessarily need a music accountant, almost any accountant will do. And they could certainly refer you to someone else if need be.

generally (not knowing your status, DBA, CO. INC, ect.) a new business can be in the 'red' for the first three years. I am not an accountant. You should show profit, w/in this period. You need to prove that your expenses are applied to your business. you need to seriously learn what a CO. INC. DBA is.

Rules are different in every state and depending on how you have your "company" set up. I would go with a really good tax person. Stay away from the mass merchant tax accountants like H&R Block as they are more "formula" driven and their "advisers" don't really understand a lot of about doing business taxes.

You can look in the Yellow pages or on line. Choosing a good tax person is vital to your bottom line. Chose wisely.