In November I finished a violin for Ramsey Husser (2nd Assistant Concertmaster) of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. It was modelled after my usual Guarneri model, the ‘Lord Wilton/Menuhin’ Guarneri violin of 1742. As I have become accustomed to...
This year I traveled twice to the US with instruments (violin & cello) to present for conferences and a competition. Similar to a touring musician, I planned to bring my instruments back to Canada with me. On my return and without proper documentation, Canada...
Every two years, the Violin Society of America holds an international violin making competition. 205 Violins, 109 violas, 67 cellos, 9 basses and 68 bows were entered from around the world to compete in Cleveland, Ohio in November. On Thursday evening, I was awarded...
This November the British magazine, the Strad, published an article on the summer program at the VSA/Oberlin College Violin Makers Workshop. I’ve attended this workshop in the United States, for a number of years, working alongside approximately fifty of my...
Last year I finished making another metal plane for the workshop. It’s based on a plane from the Museo del Violino (Cremona Museum) in Italy. It was part of a collection of tools from the Stradivari workshop purchased by Italian violin collector Count Cozio in...
