Sylvia Schwartz plays on Opus 930, a baroque violin patterned after the ‘Goldberg’ violin of Joseph Guarneri “del Gesú”. From the beginning of our relationship, Sylvia has shown a great deal of ingenuity and ambition, putting together a successful crowd-funding…
Player Profile: Patricia Quintero
For the past year, Patricia Quintero has been playing on opus 693, a violin patterned after the Leduc violin of Guarneri ‘del Gesú’. She was recommended to us by Sphinx, the Detroit-based organization dedicated to increasing diversity in the arts.…
Player Profile: William Neri
William Neri has been playing on opus 690, a 16 ¼” viola modeled on the work of Giovanni Maggini, since 2018, when he was recommended to us as a loan candidate by Sphinx, the Detroit-based organization dedicated to increasing diversity…
Violinmaking in COVID Times
The core work of violinmaking is by its nature very private and insular. So in that sense, making instruments during COVID isn’t much different from making them any other time. My working style hasn’t shifted at all, except that there’s…
Player Profile: Aaron Mossburg
I first started working with Aaron Mossburg in 2012 when he was studying with Peter Slowik. Aaron needed a high quality instrument for his undergraduate studies and purchased opus 583, a 16 5/8” viola built in 2006 on an original…
Smaller, Asymmetrical Violas
There are a number of reasons why people are interested in smaller violas. A violinist who only occasionally plays viola will find the feel more familiar and requiring less adjustment in arm placement, finger spacing, and bow weight to achieve…
Violin Makers Who Have Influenced Me
One of the reasons I copy instruments from other makers is to try to understand what it felt like to make an instrument the way they did. I feel I can get to know them through their work. Over the…
More Than the Sum of the Parts: The Beauty of Life and Violin Making
So much of understanding an instrument is the holding and the feeling of it. It’s the sense of solidity; it’s the weight and the distribution of the weight of the instrument. It’s the way the instrument responds to your voice;…
Finding the Balance: Making a Good Violin
Following the Rules There are two approaches to making instruments. The first approach is where you decide there is one right way to build a violin, and then you have to use the wood that works with the way that…
Making Violins from North American Wood
Wood is the essential material that makes violin making possible. Living here in the Vermont countryside, there is an abundance of interesting wood growing all around me. In my fifty years of violin making, I have experimented with very different…