Each summer Ottawa is fortunate to have the wonderful Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, which has grown to be the largest chamber music festival in the world. The festival contacted me in July to borrow a viola and a violin for two visiting musicians.  This was arranged with the assistance of local players, who both owned instruments I made and generously they agreed to lend their instruments.

Martin Beaver  (violinist with the Tokyo String Quartet) played on the Harrison viola loaned by Nancy Illman. With violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon and cellist Roman Borys they performed Serenade in C major by Ernst von Dohnányi.

(After the concert from left to right, Nancy Illman, Martin Beaver and myself)

A few days later the Paris based Zodiac trio needed an extra violin for a work by Bartók. Local violinist Rick Carpenter agreed to lend his violin – a recent copy I made of Pinchas Zukerman’s violin. Both Martin Beaver and Vanessa Mollard of the Zodiac trio borrowed instruments due to the difficulty of traveling by plane with two instruments.  (Martin Beaver also performed in the festival on his own violin)

An interesting feature of Chamberfest was the ‘Rising Stars’ concert, featuring talented young musicians.  Violist Jonah Poplove, pictured below, played a viola made in our workshop by my assistant. After his concert we were pleased that he decided to purchase the viola from us. (photo below Copyright © Sean Done Courtesy of Ottawa Chamber Music Society.)

Finally we were asked to lend a bow to a member of the ‘Lemon Bucket Orchestra’. One of the violinist had broken his bow, which apparently happens quite often in their ensemble. So they called to borrow a very cheap bow. After some rummaging about in the workshop I found the perfect bow to lend. It did the job for his performance and survived in one piece as well!