I basically grew up around violin making and it was always a part of me, I was playing
in the wood shavings around my dad's feet and it wasn't a question of whether I would
actually take on my father's profession but whether I'd be worthy enough to do it.
I have one of the instruments there and the case is from my father built it in 1947, that's
one of the instruments that he took apart when he left Hungary and put it in a knapsack
and carried it across the border and that's inlaid on the side with Ebony.
It's the instrument that he played himself.
My grandfather was a violin maker, my great grandfather and well I started working with
my father really very early on.
He basically apprenticed with him for eight years by his side and this is his bench.
He spent a good part of his life working on the same bench.
It wasn't the easiest of times sometimes but I really had a desire to learn how to do this
and I stuck it out.
It's definitely a labor of love and I'm so grateful that I get to do this every day
and I do something I enjoy.
It's really part of the grand scheme is that a machine cannot duplicate what a violin maker
does by hand.
There's really no other technology that can say that it hasn't been improved upon in 250 years.
That's the interesting history of the violin that it really was right.
They made it right.
Well I still have a supply of wood that my father left in Hungary in 56 when they fled.
So my aunt took all the wood which was a fairly large supply of instrument grade wood that
had been around since my great grandfather and she took this wood and actually stored
it under her bed most of it for 40 years until we had a chance to go to Hungary and bring
it back. Some of it is 150 year old wood and it definitely has a story already before I
even started cutting into it.
It's really a one on one kind of chore.
It has to be done in just a very closed loop.
It's a personal thing. It's you and the wood.
Same hand tools that my great grandfather used.
Every day I sit down at this bench as a connection with my ancestors and violin makers of the
past and I like to feel that I'm carrying on a tradition.
It's really hard to predict what will happen in the future of violin making.
There's real inroads with the CNC machines and computerized this and that and it really
takes a lot away from instrument making.
As far as the custom handmade instruments, I'm hoping that there will always be a desire
for people to obtain a really high quality handmade instrument but it's very hard to say.
The world changes so quickly and the instrument does not.
I have a daughter named Chelsea and she's decided to go a different way.
Back in the day it was almost an automatic thing that you would do what your father did.
If your father was a copper barrel maker then you would be a copper and if your father was a
steel maker then you would be a baker but nowadays it seems that the kids are often
100 different directions so the tradition is really not there.
The support for that foundation of carrying on a certain skill or craft is not there anymore.
Well it seems to be that I'll be the end of the line here for this craft and my family but
the instruments will carry on and we'll see how history judges all this.
When the instrument is finally done, ultimately it has to make beautiful music.
The instruments are the time traveler. It's my DNA traveling in time so that is my legacy.
So that's a great feeling. It gives me a little feeling of immortality.
That my DNA will be traveling through time.
Music
Music
Music
