One of the wonderful facets of my position here is that I get to work closely with violin makers. As a group, I find violin makers fascinating. The field attracts all kinds of personalities…but I have yet to find a boring violin-maker! My hope is always to build a strong relationship with the makers we work with – this ensures that their work is properly valued and represented, and it also ensures that we receive excellent examples of their work. I drove to Cleveland, OH yesterday to meet with Eugene Holtier. He is a self-taught maker (although years of attending Oberlin workshops and talking to fellow makers has sharpened his already excellent instincts) whose past career was in industrial design. He approaches the challenges of violin making with a fresh perspective and a willingness to break from tradition if he feels there is a better way. In a world in which the measure of a maker can occasionally be calculated by a miniscule detail of construction, I appreciated the playfulness Eugene exhibited as he talked about some of the differences in his approach.
The recently completed cello I played had a big sound, was extremely responsive and easy to play, and was even across all registers. It had his beautiful, un-antiqued varnish covering nicely figured wood. Eugene prices his instruments well below the most expensive modern instruments. This makes them particularly attractive to younger players, but it would be a mistake for seasoned professionals to overlook his instruments based on cost alone.
We will certainly have a cello coming to us in 2018 and we also discussed a viola and violin – stay tuned!
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