Rosin the Bow with Joe McHugh (Rosin the Bow with Joe McHugh)

While performing at the Wintergrass Music Festival in Bellevue, Washington, Mark O’Connor takes time to revisit the memories of his childhood growing up in Seattle and those who taught him the language of music, such as the legendary Texas-style fiddler, Benny Thomasson.

In part 2 of my interview with Mr. Canin, he talks about his career in music including auditioning for the San Francisco Symphony and playing for motion pictures in Hollywood. 

Noel Burke is one of the world's leading violin bow makers. He is also the younger brother of noted traditional Irish fiddle player Kevin Burke. I visited Noel at his home in County Carlow in Ireland to find out what it takes to become a bow maker and the vital role the bow plays in the making of music.

Tom Barr was one of the first people I interviewed for the Rosin the Bow project. He grew up in Grayson County in the mountains of southwestern Virginia where he now makes violins and banjos and runs a music store in the town of Galax with his son Stevie. Tom learned the art of violin making from Albert Hash who taught many violin makers in that part of the Appalachian Mountains. Tom has also worked as a labor union organizer fighting to improve the lives of working people. 

Stuart Canin is one of the most respected violinists in the world today. I interviewed the 91 year old Mr. Canin at his home in Berkeley, California. Having served as concert master for the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Opera, and numerous film score composers such as John Williams and Randy Newman, Mr. Canin, with a $2 violin, also played his part in world history at the conclusion of World War II. 

Daniel Rouslin taught violin and music theater at Willamette University for many years. He was teaching there in 1988 when an early 18th century Italian violin was discovered hidden under the floor boards of Waller Hall, the oldest building on the campus of the oldest institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi River. How did violin get there? Who made the violin? What should the school do with such a unique and valuable violin?

Dan tells the story of the remarkable discovery and also shares his own story as a musician and music educator. 

I interviewed James Kelly at the National Folklore Festival in 2015 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Mr. Kelly was born and grew up in Ireland and is now living in the United States. His father was the renowned fiddle and concertina player John Kelly. James talks about growing up in a musical family and how traditional Irish music moved from Ireland to America and back again to Ireland thanks to a series of recordings made in the early years of the twentieth century.

Purnaprajna Bangere is both a brilliant mathematician and a highly-respected violinist trained in the classical violin music of southern India. David Balakrishnan is a violinist, composer, and member of the Turtle Island String Quartet who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2017, David spent several months as an artist-in-residence working with Purna in Lawrence, Kansas, home of the University of Kansas. This interview explores their unique musical collaboration that weaves together the classical violin music traditions of southern India with that of Europe and the United States.   

Hans Johannsson is a violin maker from Iceland. David Fulton is a noted collector of old Italian violins, violas, and cellos. I met and interviewed Hans when he came to David's house in Bellevue, Washington, to examine his collection of rare instruments. It was conversation that covered many subjects related to violin making and the role the arts play in the world today.

This is part two of my conversation with violin maker Marco Imer Piccinotti who lives in the town of San Polo d'Enza in Northern Italy.

The interviews I conducted with musicians, luthiers, museum curators, tone wood experts and others for the Rosin the Bow project took place before the Covid 19 pandemic upended all our lives. The impact of the pandemic upon the livelihood of working musicians has been devastating and know one knows when conditions with improve for them. Well, I recently heard of innovative project in Vermont that involves the making of a handmade violin and a bow, the streaming in real time on the Internet the making of the violin, and the raffling of violin and bow to raise money for a special fund to help musicians weather these extraordinary times. The project was the brainchild of violin maker Jacob Brillhart but many others stepped up to help make this happen. Here is an interviewed with Jacob and others that tells the story of the project while exploring how those in the violin world can best cope with what is going on. And the raffle is still going on, so listen and buy a ticket or two. You just might get lucky and you'll be helping fellow musicians in the bargain. Just visit:  https://sevenstarsarts.rallyup.com/musicianaid

This is the second part of my conversation with Winifred Horan, fiddler with the Irish musical group Solas, during which she talks about her Jonathan Cooper violin and her decision to return to traditional Irish music after many years of training as a classical violinist.

In the spring of 2015, Paula and I visited Florence, Italy, to interview a family of violin makers. Paolo Vettori is the patriarch of the family who learned to make violins from his father Dario Vettori. Three of his grown children now also make violins with him in his shop. In this podcast I feature my conversation with Paolo and his son Dario II and daughter Sophia. Spending the day with this lovely lovely family in the beautiful city of Florence was an experience my wife Paula and I will never forget and it is with great pleasure I present this podcast.

Amanda Forsyth is a cellist who was born in South Africa and grew up in Canada. Her father was a composer who inspired her to become a musician. She is married to the violinist Pinchas Zukerman and I interviewed her after a concert she performed with her husband and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra.

Tony Ellis' first professional job as a musician was playing banjo for Bill Monroe, considered by many as the father of bluegrass music. Along with being a gifted banjo player and fiddler, Tony also composes some of the sweetest tunes this side of paradise. And if you need your fiddle adjusted or maybe you're in the market for a new instrument, stop by Tony's shop in Circleville, Ohio.

This interview was recorded in 2018 at the Fraley Family Music Festival that is held each year at Carter Caves State Park in the hill country of eastern Kentucky.

Penny Brill is an accomplished violist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She has also led an effort to bring the healing power of music to hospitals and other medical organizations in the greater Pittsburgh area. I interviewed Ms. Brill at her home in the fall of 2015. In these troubling times of the corona virus outbreak, Ms. Brill offers valuable insights into ways we can be healthy in our bodies and in our communities.

In part 2 of my interview with Fan Tao, head of research and development for the D'Addario Musical String Company, Fan talks about how his family came to the United States from Taiwan. He also talks about the history of the D'Addario family who came to the United States from Italy at the turn of the 20th century. The interview ends with Fan giving me a tour of the D'Addario factory in Long Island, NY.

I interviewed Winifred Horan when she came to perform with the Irish musical group Solas at the Wintergrass Music Festival in Bellevue, Washington, in 2016. This is part one of that conversation in which she talks about her Irish-born parents, her involvement with traditional Irish dancing, and her extensive classical violin training in New York City and Boston.

While attending the National Folk Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 2015, I had the opportunity to interview fiddler Courtney Granger who was performing at the festival with the Pine Leaf Boys. Sadly, Courtney passed away recently and I wanted to share this interview with others. He was a talented musician and a lovely human being. He will be missed.

Christian Howes is a gifted violinist who grew up in Ohio playing classical music, soloing with the Columbus Symphony at the age of sixteen. But then his life was turned upside down when he was sentenced to served four years in prison. I traveled to Asheville, North Carolina, in 2016 to ask Christ to share his remarkable story with us. This is part one of that conversation.

Marco Imer Piccinotti is a highly-regarded violin maker living in the town of San Polo d'Enza in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. Paula and I visited Marco at his home where I recorded this interview.

This is part two of my conversation with violinist John Sherba who is a member of the Kronos Quartet. In this podcast he talks about some of the quartet's innovative musical projects as well as talking about his own violins.

Grammy and MacArthur award winner Rhiannon Giddens grew up in North Carolina near the city of Greensboro, which is where I interviewed her in 2015 while she was performing at the National Folk Festival. A founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, she was trained as an opera singer before her passion for the banjo, fiddle, and folk songs took hold. She has done much to educate the public, as well as fellow musicians, about the contribution African-American musicians have made to the traditional folk music of United States. 

Chris Haddox is a fiddler, luthier, and professor of environmental studies and West Virginia University. He is also the owner of a violin made in the mountains of West Virginia the early part of the 20th century by a blind violin maker named Tommy Doolittle. Here Chris tells the story about the fiddle and his own experiences being an old-time fiddler.

Jody Stecher is one of the most highly respected folk musicians in the world today. His knowledge of the genre is encyclopedic and his singing and skill on a variety of traditional string instruments is unrivaled. I interviewed Jody at his home in San Francisco in 2017. This is part one of that conversation.  

In part two of my conversation with Gregg Alf, we talk about the day to day life of the violin maker, including the harvesting of tone wood, and what it takes to sell violins in today's world. We also discuss the differences between handmade violins and factory-made violins and Gregg finishes with an unusual story about an antique table and the making of a violin.

I recorded this hour-long interview with violin maker Mark Keenan in 2017 when my wife Paula and I traveled to Ireland. Mark's studio is inside the historic Belmont industrial flour mill in Co. Offaly. Mark's grandfather was also a violin maker at the beginning of the twentieth century in Dublin. 

Aaron Allen is a professor of musicology and environmental studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In this podcast, he looks at the impact instrument making and cultural assumptions about music impact the natural world, the trees, animals, and minerals that make musical instruments possible.

Michael Certalic is a violinist who lives in Bozeman, Montana, where he heads up the strings program at a local high school. In this podcast, he tells the story of a violin he asked a luthier to make that would contain elements of Montana, a state he dearly loves and that serves as the source of his inspiration as a musician and teacher.

Lyris is the former head of marketing for orchestral strings for the D'Addario Musical Strings Company. She is also an accomplished violinist who plays with the popular musical group Indigo Girls. She also has her own rock band named Hung. I interviewed Lyris in 2016 at the Wintergrass Music Festival in Bellevue, Washington.

This podcast features an interview with Bruno Crosignani, director of the office of the Paneveggio Forest that manages the harvesting of tonewood from the Val di Fiemme high up in the Italian Alps. Bruno explains in detail the process of growing, harvesting, and selecting spruce wood for the making of fine musical instruments. This is followed by a tour of Val di Fiemme led by Giuliano Zugliani, head ranger of the Val di Fiemme.

Anyone familiar with what is called "old-time" music knows the name Bruce Molsky. As a fiddler, singer, and guitar and banjo player, he has helped keep traditional American folk music alive and well for the better part of fifty years. I interviewed Bruce at the Oly Old-Time Music Festival in Olympia, Washington, in 2016.

Clay Jenkinson is an acclaimed humanities scholar with a deep knowledge about the life and work of Thomas Jefferson, a paragon of the enlightenment whose many interests and passions included playing the violin. Along with offering a unique perspective on this fascinating part of Jefferson's life, Clay weighs in the cultural and political changes taking place in modern society.

In 2016 I visited Greensboro, North Carolina, to interview Russian-born violinist and conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky and attend a special concert featuring Mr. Sitkovetsky and violinist Pinchas Zukerman and his wife, cellist Amanda Forsyth. He talked about his famous musical parents, his musical training in the former Soviet Union, his Stradivari violin, and what it takes to find beauty and meaning in life.

David Balakrishnan is a gifted violinist and founding member of the Turtle Island String Quartet. He is also a composer who draws upon a variety of musical traditions to create works that are both fresh and enduring. I recorded this interview at his home in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2015.

This podcast continues my conversation with two remarkable and thoughtful musicians. It also explores how the principles of abstract geometry can inform both the composition and performance of violin music and how different cultures and musical traditions can enrich the experience of music and of life itself.

This is part two of my fascinating interview with violinist and music educator Christian Howes. 

Bashar Matti was born in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War and endured the troubled times of the Kuwait-Iraq War and subsequent United States invasion of his country. Through it all he clung to his love of the violin and music and was eventually able to come to the United States where he studied violin with Kathryn Lucktenberg at the University of Oregon. 

Clay Buckner is an old-time and Celtic fiddler living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For many years, Clay has been the fiddler for one of my favorite string bands, the Red Clay Ramblers. I recorded this interview at his home after which we spent a pleasant evening playing tunes together.

Joshua Bell is one of the most respected solo violinists in the world today. He also serves as the music director of the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields. I interviewed Mr. Bell backstage after he performed a special Mother's Day concert with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra in 2018.

In 2015, Paula and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary by visiting the city of Venice. While there, we had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Gregg Alf, one of the most highly respected violin makers in the world today. Steeped in the history of the violin and possessing remarkable violin making skills, Gregg also brings to his work a spiritual sensibility befitting these mysterious and enchanting instruments.  

Internationally acclaimed concert violinist, recording artist, educator, and philanthropist, The New York Times describes Rachel Barton Pine as “Striking and charismatic…she demonstrated a bravura technique and soulful musicianship.” Here she tells the story of her early life and love of the violin.

Ms. Pine begins this part of the interview with the story of an unusual experience she had once while playing a very special violin. She also discusses her desire to bring the work of composers of African heritage into the mainstream of classical music.

With three Grammys, seven CMA awards, and numerous national fiddle, guitar, and mandolin champion titles to his name, Mark pays tribute to his mother and her dedication to his musical gifts and his well-being as a person. He also speaks passionately about his method for teaching young people the violin.

Joe McHugh is a storyteller, fiddler, and award-winning public radio journalist who travels the world exploring the many roles the violin family of instruments play in society today. He has interviewed gifted musicians who play a variety of styles—classical, folk, jazz, and rock—as well as master luthiers, dealers, collectors, tone wood producers, insurance agents, museum curators, rosin makers, string designers—even FBI agents who have helped recover stolen violins. The Rosin the Bow archive of recorded interviews will become a permanent part of the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of violin-related materials.

Episode 01 Rosin the Bow Sampler features a number of shorter segments culled from longer interviews that will be featured in future podcast episodes. So stayed tuned and enjoy this journey through the life and times of a family of remarkable musical instruments and the exceptional people who make sure they continue to bring us moments of joy and enchantment.

Greg and Jere Canote are identical twins who play old-time fiddle, guitar, and banjo. Renowned for their musical stylings as well as their zany sense of humor and good-natured stage-presence, the Canote Brothers have toured the world sharing their infectious love of music. In this episode they talk about the challenges of being raised by their deaf mother, the creative beginnings of The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, and the curious nature of playing music with your identical twin.

Bruce Harvie is a tonewood dealer who lives in the San Juan Islands of Puget Sound. Here he shares his passion and vast knowledge of tonewood for violins and other musical instruments.

In part two of my conversation with tone wood expert Bruce Harvie, we discuss the selection and use of Pernambuco for making bows and the growing problem of tone wood tree poaching

In my twenties, I spent a year living in Scotland doing my best to learn the fiddle music of the Highlands. Later I moved to Nevada City, California, where I had the good fortune to meet and become friends with Alasdair, regarded by many as one of the most accomplished Scottish fiddlers living in the world today. In part one of our conversation, Alasdair talks about how the violin helped him overcome a debilitating shyness when he was a child and how later he dedicated his life to bringing back a musical tradition that was often disregarded.

In this part of my conversation with Alasdair Fraser, he tells a remarkable story about how a young girl with a rare and potentially fatal disease was helped by listening to Scottish fiddle music. He also tells the story of how an unscrupulous producer stole his music composition to use in a major Hollywood film.

Roland Feller grew up in Switzerland and attended the violin-making school in Mittenwald, Germany, before coming to the United States to work with Simone Fernando Sacconi in New York. He later opened his own shop in San Francisco where he is a much sought after restorer as well as maker. Here Roland tells of the challenges he endured in those early years of his violin-making education.

Erynn Marshall grew up in British Columbia but her love of traditional fiddle music eventually took her to the mountains of southwestern Virginia where she lives today with her husband Carl Jones, an accomplished musician and songwriter. Along with keeping the fiddle traditional alive by playing the old tunes, she also composes wonderful fiddle tunes. Here she talks about her life as a traveling musician and her love for the violin she owns, even celebrating its birthday each year.

I have know very few songwriters whose songs move me as much as those composed by Carl Jones. A multi-instrumentalist as well, and that includes the fiddle, Carl has performed with some of the top folk musicians alive today, including his wife Erynn Marshall and fiddler James Bryan. I know you’ll enjoy his wit and insights into what makes life interesting and worth the effort.

Jeff Harshbarger is a bassist, composer, and band leader living in Lawrence, Kansas. In 2011, he was voted Best Bassist by Pitch Magazine. I first heard Jeff perform as a member of a quartet blending classical Indian violin music with western classical and jazz violin. Jeff brought to our conversation about the bass a deep understanding of not just music, but what it means to be fully human.

In part two of this podcast, bassist Jeff Harshbarger talks about his different approaches to using a bow with a bass. He also talks about a remarkable teacher he visits each year in France and the role physical spaces play in how music sounds.

Alicia is a violinist, composer, and founding member of the Grammy- winning Klezmatics. She collaborated on musical projects with violinist Itzhak Perlman, the Kronos Quartet, playwrights Tony Kushner and Eve Ensler, the late poet Allen Ginsburg, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, among others. When it comes to the Jewish tradition of Klezmer music, Alicia is the person to talk to. 

For more information and to check her calendar visit Alicia's website.

Joseph Grubaugh and Sigrun Seifert are violin makers living in Petaluma, California. They are also husband and wife and they make almost all of their instruments together. Many gifted musicians play their instruments or have them repair and adjust their instruments. They have also won numerous awards. Is that enough? Well, they also played a central role in recovering a Stradivari violin that went missing decades earlier and was considered stolen.

In this part 2 podcast, husband and wife luthiers Joseph Grubaugh and Sigrun Seifert talk about the importance of varnish in the making of violins and cellos. They also discuss the practice of “antiquing” newly-made instruments, how certain famous violins got their names, and how they came to own a set of chairs used in a Grammy-award-winning recording by the Angeles Quartet.

Laurie Lewis is a Grammy award-winning bluegrass fiddler and songwriter. For several years she owned a violin shop in Berkeley, California. Here Laurie tells how she wrote two songs about the violin: The Maple's Lament and The Bear Song. Her interview is followed by a folktale and music from Mongolia about the origins of the Mongolian horse-head fiddle. 

Few violinists in modern times have made as much of a mark on the music world as Darol Anger. A founding member of the Turtle Island Quartet, he now teaches at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. I caught up with Darol at the Wintergrass Bluegrass Festival in Bellevue, Washington, and here he talks about the physical challenges of playing the violin and some of the exceptional violins he has had the opportunity to tuck up under his chin. 

David Fulton is one of the most important violin collectors in the world today. Here David shares his life story and the passion that drove him to seek out and preserve instruments made by such masters as Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu.

This is the second part of my interview with violin collector David Fulton. Here David shares an entertaining mix of stories related to some of the most treasured violins and cellos in his collection.

Dr. Paolo Bodini is a physician. politician, and president of the Museo del Violino in Cremona, Italy, a city that is famous for having been the home of master violin makers Andrea Amati, Antonio Stradivari, and Guiseppe Guaneri. We visited Cremona in 2015 and sat down with Paolo to learn what inspired him to lead an effort to create a museum for the violin in Cremona and what we can learn about history, technology, and the love of these remarkable instruments and the people who make them.

While attending a wedding in Bozeman, Montana, I had the good fortune to interview Eric Funk, musician, conductor, and celebrated composer. Eric is also a professor of music at Montana State University and hosts an Emmy award-winning music and culture program for Montana Public Television.

In this second part of the conversation I had with Eric Funk, he talks about the inspiration and creative process behind his concerto A Violin Alone in which a solo violinist not only plays the part of the violin but uses his instrument to mimic all the other instruments in the orchestra. And there is more philosophy as well concerning the special role music plays in our lives.

Eugene Friesen is a cellist who has performed as a member of the Paul Winter Consort for many years often exploring the musical possibilities of playing inside sacred spaces such as the Grand Canyon and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine or accompanying animals such as whales and wolves. A four-time Grammy award-winner, he teaches at the Berklee School of Music in Boston where I interviewed him in 2017.

Here is part two on my conversation with old-time musician Jody Stecher that ranges from music theory, what's in tune and what's not in tune when playing different fiddle tunes for instance, to the intricacies of an old ballad about two sisters who fall in love with the same young man with the refrain, "Oh the Dreadful Wind and Rain." Jody also shares his history with different violins he's owned over the years.

Fan Tao is head of research and development for the D'Addario Musical Strings Company based in Farmingdale, New York. He is also past president of the Violin Society of America. I interviewed Fan at the D'Addario factory in June, 2015, to learn as much as I could about the history and technology of strings for the violin family of instruments. Here is part one of that interview.

John Sherba is a violinist and member of the legendary Kronos Quartet. I interviewed John several months after the Covid 19 pandemic changed everyone's life. Here he talks about his family and his own musical journey.

Joseph Kromholz is a violinist and professor of violin and viola at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. I interviewed Mr. Kromholz in the fall of 2015 and we discussed many aspects of playing and teaching the violin, along with the strong connection that exists between the violin and Jewish culture.

Kevin Burke has been a mainstay of the traditional Irish music scene since the early 1970s. He has performed with groups such as the Bothy Band, Patrick Street, Celtic Music Festival, and Open House. Born and raised in London, Kevin now lives in Portland, Oregon, where I interviewed him in 2017. In part one of this podcast, he talks about his eccentric classical violin teacher and a chance meeting with Arlo Guthrie in the west of Ireland that led to him recording several fiddle tracks on Arlo's album, Last of the Brooklyn Cowboys, in 1972.

In part two of my interview with Irish fiddler Kevin Burke, we explore the relationship between the violin and the electric guitar. He also talks about how he acquired his violin and his bow, the latter a gift from his brother Noel Burke, a renowned violin maker living in Ireland who I later interviewed. He also reflects on the demands made upon the traveling musician, as well as the rewards.

Michael Cleveland was born blind but he fell in love with the violin as a young child when he heard a recording of the fiddle tune Orange Blossom Special. “I want to play that,” he told himself and, with the help of his parents and teachers at a school for the blind, that’s exactly what he did, and a whole bunch of other tunes as well. Named fiddler of the year six times in a row by the International Bluegrass Music Association, Michael performs with his group Flamekeeper. I interviewed Michael while attending the Hiawatha Traditional Music Festival in Marquette, Michigan, in 2018. 

Michael Gray is a violinist and composer living in the Pacific Northwest who has performed with the gypsy-jazz inspired combo Pearl Django for many years. I interviewed Michael in 2015 at the Wintergrass Music Festival.

These are two of most highly regarded traditional Irish musicians performing and teaching today. Mick Moloney was born in Ireland and now lives in the United States. Along with being a singer and player of the 4-string banjo and mandolin, he holds a doctorate in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania and regularly takes groups to Ireland to experience first-hand the music and culture of his native land. 

Born in New York City and then spending her childhood in San Francisco, Athena Tergis was classically trained on the violin but later fell in love with Irish and Scottish fiddle music. A former solo fiddler for the Broadway production of Riverdance, she tours with Mick Moloney and other musicians when not tending to her winery with her husband in the hills of Tuscany, Italy.

Inspired by Carol Rodland’s Rochester-based “If Music be the Food…” food drive concerts, violist Kim Kashkashian launched a concert series titled Music for Food in 2010 to help relieve food insecurity in the Greater Boston area. Working with a group of Boston-based musicians and guest artists, Music for Food has created over 500,000 meals through donations made at concerts for nearly 100 hunger-relief organizations. More than 160 international artists have performed at concerts worldwide that were organized by Music for Food. Here Kim Kashkashian and other members of the organization share the reasons they are committed to this worthy project.

Nadine Landry was born into a musical family in the province of Quebec in Canada. She is a member of the Foghorn Stringband and is married to the band’s fiddler, Stephen “Sammy” Lind. I interviewed Nadine when the band performed at the Oly Old-time Music Festival in Olympia, Washington, in 2015. 

Husband and wife duo Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy are award-winning Canadian fiddle players. Natalie grew up on Cape Breton Island and Donnell grew up in Ontario. They have seven children and, when not out on tour, they work on their cattle ranch. I interviewed Natalie and Donnell when they came to perform at the Washington Center for the Arts.

Fine violins and cellos are more than musical instruments; they are also visual works of art. They exist in the visual art world in other ways as well. In 2015, I visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, where I was given a tour of the collection by Stephen Ackert, former curator of music, and Bruno Nasta, a jazz violinist who organizes the concert series that takes place each year inside the National Gallery. Stephen and Bruno showed me a number of paintings from antiquity to the 1840s in which a violin-style instrument played a significant part. Join me for this illuminating walk-about in one of our nation’s premier art museums.

To see paintings talked about in the podcast 

https://www.rosinthebow.org/national-gallery.html

Vermont-born fiddler and songwriter Pete Sutherland has been a mainstay of the old-time music scene for many years. I first met Pete in the early 1980s when we both served on the faculty of the Augusta Heritage Program in Elkins, WV. I later caught up with him at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, WA, where we sat down for a chat about the instrument and music we love.

Piera Ciresa is the co-owner of the Ciresa Val di Fiemme, a tonewood company located in the small village of Tesero high up in the Italian Alps. The company provides spruce for violin instruments and piano sound boards that was harvested from the Val di Fiemme, the Valley of the Flame, where the great violin makers of old such as Stradivari, Guarnari, and Amati got their wood. The interview begins in a special park in the town of Cavalese where important political and economic decisions, including the management of the forest, were made by elected representatives of the community going back as far as the Middle Ages. I later toured the factory with Piera and learned about “bearclaw” spruce.

The Rosin the Bow project got its start thanks in large part to bow maker and violin dealer and shop owner Robert Ray in Olympia, Washington. Bob’s fascination with the history of the violin and the art of bow making inspired me to go in search of stories about this remarkable family of instruments and the people who love them. 

William Monical is a highly regarded restorer of bowed stringed instruments. He also possesses a wealth of knowledge concerning the evolution of the modern violin. Here he recounts that history with the flair and wit of a gifted storyteller.

In 2015, Paula and I visited Cremona, Italy, the city where the great masters of violin making, Amati, Stradivari, and Guarneri, once lived and worked. Thanks to the establishment of a violin making school in Cremona in the 1930s, a hundred and fifty violin makers now call the city their home. Israeli-born Yael Rosenblum is one of the them. She is also a skilled string player and this, along with being a woman, provides her with unique insights into what it means to be a luthier in the world today.

Zoe Conway is a gifted young musician living in Ireland. Steeped in the traditional fiddle music of her native land, she is also an accomplished classical violinist. I interviewed Zoe while attending the Clifden Arts Festival that is held each September in a lovely seaside town in Connemara in the west of Ireland. Zoe’s performance of a composition by Bill Whelan with the national RTE Orchestra is one I shall not soon forget.