This year is Pinchas Zukerman’s last season as music director with the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO). Over the past few years, my assistant and I have restored a number of the instruments in the Zukerman Instrument Collection at the NACO.  While dealing with this collection of string instruments, Pinchas Zukerman played a Stradivari copy that I had just finished making, but he wondered why I wouldn’t copy his violin! He was very kind to allow me to measure and copy his  ‘Dushkin’ Guarneri Del Gesu violin from 1742, Cremona.

The original violin has a robust construction and style with a beautifully coloured and textured varnish on the back. The first known owner was C.H.C Plowden who purchased the violin 1867. It was then sold by British violin dealers W.E. Hill  & Sons in 1927 to American violinist Samuel Dushkin. Inherited by his widow in 1976, it was purchased by Pinchas Zukerman in 1979.

In the early 1980’s the violin was restored by violin maker, René Morel, in New York who fit a new bassbar, bridge and soundpost. I was fortunate to talk with René Morel about the work he did on this violin before he passed away in 2011. Below is my copy.