Another Violin

This violin is a star. Everyone seems to like it a great deal. It has a lot of harmony as much in the construction as in the sound. The one piece back means that the flame really stands out and makes the violin look absolutely beautiful. Of course, tiny pictures cannot do the violin justice, so we welcome musicians to get in touch with us and try it or another instrument out.

Varnishing

June hasn't been the nicest of months. Alberto has been waiting for the sun to come out so that he can varnish the latest violin. I wanted to get the laundry done.

Apparently, exposure to sunlight not only helps dry the varnish, but also makes it insoluble in turpentine, which also means that Alberto can subsequently polish the instrument to a high shine. Alberto--true to his instinctual nature--just says it makes it easier to varnish, makes the varnish go further in thinner coats.

Beat Beethoven

On June 7th my brother Stuart and I ran the 8km Beat Beethoven run while my pregnant sister-in-law walked the 4km and Alberto held coats and took pictures. The Kingston Symphony put on a free concert (Beethoven's 3rd Symphony) while runners and walkers followed the route. My brother generously kept me company for the first 3km before taking off to go at his own pace. Unfortunately I missed out on most of the concert, making it back with just seven minutes to spare.

I finished in 43.21 beating my own goal of 46 minutes. Over 700 people walked or ran raising oodles of money for the KSO. All in all it was a great time and I hope to do even better next year.








Runners line up at the start.

The symphony plays.

Sue (my sister-in-law) walks and claps.





After, at the pub.

Ottawa Trip

This past weekend Alberto and I made a trip to Ottawa. Friday we spent our time wandering around the city, to Ottawa U and downtown music stores in the off-chance we might meet a violinist interested in taking a look at one of the two new instruments we were lugging around with us. Generally, the day turned out to be a bit of a flop, though we did have the chance to explore the city. One point, however, really stood out in the day. As we were walking along MacLaren Street

Kun house

I glanced up at the sign on a large house. The name seemed familiar as I repeated it in my head before shouting out "Kun!" loud enough for passers-by to turn. We had stumbled across the company that makes very excellent shoulder rests, which we order from Maryland. We went inside and saw the small production team, including the receptionist who was carefully sticking Kun tags to every shoulder rest.

It was a bit exciting to visit Kun since it is so easy to forget that products have to be made somewhere by someone, when for us they just appear by magic through the mail. Unfortunately, Kun only sells in large amounts to its distributers, so I guess we'll have to keep ordering shoulder rests from Maryland.

The real highlight of the weekend was visiting the National Arts Centre Orchestra. A friend of a friend of a relative plays oboe in the orchestra and arranged for us to meet the string players backstage between the rehearsal and the performance. I was amazed at the friendliness of the musicians and how accepted we were amongst them. Alberto, who is much more used to gate crashing rehearsals than I am, was quite comfortable. I was a bit nervous about filling expectations but after a few musicians played the instruments and asked serious questions about the instruments and Alberto, I realized that perhaps we were in the right place. A big boost to our confidence was when Karoly Sziladi

Alberto outside the NAC (we forgot the camera earlier when we were at the rehearsal)

played one of Alberto's violins on stage during the concert.

Alberto and I would like to thank all the musicians at the NAC for giving us the time and the chance to show the instruments. Since we are new to the music scene here in Canada, we rely almost entirely on word-of-mouth and the kindness of musicians who take the time to take us seriously.

Some Photos of One Instrument for Sale

Please ignore the dates on the photos...not sure how they got there, but they are completely wrong.

Alberto's Education

One of the first questions Alberto is asked when we speak to musicians here in Canada is about his violin making education. The following is his story as to how he came to violin making and how he developed his talents as a luthier.

Alberto is originally from Ocoyoacac, which is about an hour drive south west of Mexico City and a half-hour drive from Toluca. When Alberto was 19-years-old he went to Xalapa, Veracruz to study music at the Universidad Veracruzana. While there, one of his instructors, David Estrada, often spoke of instruments and how they were made. Alberto was very curious and pestered David Estrada (also a luthier) with specific questions. Alberto asked David if he could be his student, but David refused. He did, however, give Alberto a list of luthiers who might take a student.

After exhausting the list, Alberto finally approached Arael Landa, who had recently returned from working in Europe. Arael Landa took Alberto on with the condition that Alberto prove his dedication to work and learning. From the beginning Alberto was given the task of making complete violins. His first being a relatively good instrument, Arael kept Alberto on teaching him by showing him once then expecting Alberto to produce, criticizing when the work wasn't up to par. With Arael, Alberto learned the basics of the Cremona style of instrument making.

When Arael had to return to Europe after a year he recommended Alberto to his brother Nahum Landa. While with Arael, Alberto learned precision and discipline, Nahum taught Alberto how to work quickly while repeating and perfecting specific tasks regarding the making of a violin. Nahum's techniques, often experimental, allowed Alberto to test the limits of violin making as well as understand the range from baroque to classical to contemporary instruments. During this time, Alberto also developed his varnishing technique that makes his instruments beautiful and distinct.

In 1998, Alberto won a prize from CONACULTA (a government foundation) for three 1/2 size violins made with Mexican wood as part of Jovenes Creadores Artisticos (young artistic creators).

In the same year, Alberto moved with his first wife and baby daughter to Mexico City in order to be nearer to his sisters after the death of their mother. In Mexico City he started to look for work with the orchestras, but with little luck. Most musicians expected their luthiers to be older and in a city where so many pass themselves off as luthiers and mangle (or steal) instruments, they were unwilling to take a risk on him. Desperate for work, Alberto began with mariachis who hung out in Plaza Garibaldi like hookers waiting for work.

For those of you who don't know Plaza Garibaldi, it is only a few blocks from the beautiful Palacio Bellas Artes in an area that sells wedding and quinceañera dresses (big poofy dresses). At night the mariachis come out and hand out business cards to passersby. If you want you can just pick up a whole group and take them back for your party. Though Plaza Garibaldi is the centre of traditional mariachi music, those who hang out there are not very good--the good ones already have gigs.

In Garibaldi, Alberto did repair after repair, bridge after bridge, bow rehair after bow rehair, selling most of his instruments to young musicians in youth orchestras and those still studying music in university. Gradually, Alberto gained the trust of mariachis of better talent, including "El Vaquero" Roberto Lopez (director of Sonidos de America) and those who also played in orchestras who introduced him into the classical circle.

Though there are schools for luthiers in Mexico, Alberto's learning was one based on pure work (blood, sweat and tears) giving him a better understanding of what musicians want. Whereas in the school for luthiers he might have made only one instrument in his four years there, Alberto's education was about producing and improving on every single instrument he makes, which is why his early clients, up-and-coming students, return to him as each improves his art.

Some of the Orchestras whose musicians are amongst Alberto's client list:

Orquestra de la Universidad Nacional Autonama de Mexico (UNAM)
Orquestra del Politecnica
Orquestra del Ejercito
Orquestra Tipica de la Ciudad de Mexico
Orquestra Nacional de Bellas Artes
Orquestra de Camara de la Ciudad de Mexico
Orquestra de la Escuela Nacional de Musica
Orquestra de Bellas Artes Toluca
Orquestra Sinfonica Juvenil de Toluca
Orquestra Sinfonica Juvenil de FONCA
Orquestra Sinfonica Carlos Chavez

Recent Adventures in Musicland

The Bookstore Cafe, Camden East

On Friday Alberto and I were invited by my uncle Bob and aunt Patsy to accompany them to one of their favourite places--The Bookstore Cafe in Camden East. After a simple, but okay/good meal, we stayed for the Friday night show. Nudie and the Turks, an old-style country band, put on an amazing show to the small audience. Unlike anything Alberto

Nudie

had ever heard, he was especially taken with the fiddler's (Gordie

MacKeeman) unorthodox technique including behind the back and his ability to produce a variety of sounds from the instrument (including something sounding like a train).

Nudie and the Turks

Gordie played so intensely and vigorously, the hairs on his bow were flying with ever draw. We tried convincing him to let us rehair it that night, but I guess he was off to another city that night and was having a bow with synthetic fibre sent to him via mail.

All in all, the evening was incredibly fun and we were a bit reluctant to leave the cozy cafe and step back out into the cool and rainy night.

Cubafest Kingston was a week long event that brought the Latin American population of Kingston out of the woodwork and into the streets. No fiddlers or violinists here, Alberto volunteered and was assigned the task of helping the bands set up in Market Square. Being his naturally friendly self, he managed to immediately make friends with the percussionist (Cancan) and bring him home for dinner. Alberto also gave away our small TV and secondhand DVD player to Cancan who cannot get such things so easily at home.

Los Naranjos has what I guess must be a typical Cuban sound that is similar to

Cubafest band Los Naranjos play in Market Square, Kingston

the more familiar group, The Buenavista Social Club. The band from Cienfuegos was formed in 1926, though obviously does not have all the original players. That said, the singer is 95 years old and at least was alive when the group was formed.

Alberto and I spent Cubafest dancing amongst a crowd, some of which were better dancers and so many others who had the spirit to try Salsa or just move their bodies with the music.

So now, with contacts in Cuba, Alberto is planning a trip--more wishful thinking than reality.

Old Clamps, New Clamps

Pretty much everymorning, Alberto talks about all the things he's going to get with our imaginary money...Hybrid Cars, an electric Scooter, an oven thing he saw once on a paid-programming commercial, etc. He usually convinces me with the things he needs to make violins. Recently, we used up all his birthday and Christmas money my grandmother had been saving for us over the years to buy a luxury item--New Clamps!

The old ones worked but the pressure was not concentrated on the violin itself and caused the glue to seep out everywhere, which meant Alberto had to do a lot of cleaning up of the instrument and repairing where cork clamps pulled at the wood.

The new clamps are fantastic--curved and colour coded to follow the shape of the violin, putting all the pressure exactly where it needs to go.

How to Make a Violin

In The Workshop

Here are some photos that show some of how a violin is made. Undoubtedly, there are specific words for each step in the process. I, however, don't know them and if I asked Alberto he would give them in Spanish.



Alberto first glues wooden blocks into the corners of the frame then cuts them to create the shape of a violin. He will use the frame as a model to which he can shape the sides. He bends the sides (thin long strips of maple) by using a hot, bending iron and glues them to the blocks. He can then knock the frame out without damaging the sides. Then he carves away the blocks to make them smaller supports for the violin.

Here the sides are around the frame. Also, there is the back of the violin. Both the top and back are each made from two pieces of wood.


The top is almost always spruce and the back is made of maple. Ideally the wood should be dried for many, many years (25-50). This means that the wood is more stable and less likely to change its sound.

Alberto first planes the sides so that they will be flush with one another, then he glues them. To keep the two pieces together he wraps them with strips of rubber from old bicycle tires.

Here you can see the back without the old rubber tires as well as the neck and spiral. For the spiral, Alberto uses a paper model marking pin points where he has to carve away. He usually does the spiral first then waits until he is done the violin to carve the neck. Alberto takes a lot of pride in how smooth the neck is and I get to be the judge of that.

Alberto traces another pattern for the violin top and back. He then uses a band saw to cut the outline. He then carves, judging how much almost by instinct, with increasingly small planes. For the top, he cuts the Fs while the wood is still fairly thick. Towards the end of this process he uses a caliper to make sure the various areas along the top and back are the correct width--sometimes as thin as 2.5 millimetres. He also taps the wood with his finger and listens...I don't know exactly what he hears.

Before carving out the inside of the top or back, and once the outside is almost done, Alberto does the perfling--that's the line around the outside edge of the violin. It's really a thing strip of wood set into the violin. What it does is prevent potential future cracks from going all the way to the edge and making the damage worse. Until we purchased a dremel tool, this process would take about two days. Now it takes about two hours

Inside of the top piece. The wood in front is the harmonic bar before it is carved.

The harmonic bar is very important to the sound of the instrument. Often Alberto opens up others' instruments and remakes the harmonic bar, bringing to live an otherwise boring (dead) violin.

Before Alberto glues all the parts together he places his tag in the bottom piece to identify the instrument and its maker. It always drives me crazy in The Red Violin when the luthier awkwardly places the tag through the Fs as if it is a final touch--what a pain that would be when days before the instrument was still in pieces.

Alberto then glues all the pieces together using a special glue that can removed with warm water. This way it is easier to clean up the instrument and it makes it easier to take the violin apart in the future for repairs.

Next comes varnishing. Alberto makes his own varnishes to really bring out the flame (those broad lines in the maple back and sides) and the distinctiveness of the wood. He also likes to give the violin an antique sort of look. The sun and wind are great ways to dry the varnish.

Photo by Peter Ginn

When the weather is good. Alberto hangs his violins from the tree or the clothesline or a string in the door frame.

Then come all the details: Fingerboard, nut, pegs, accessories, strings, bridge, painting the inside of the Fs a dark brown or black, polishing, and the sound post (a little dowel piece that goes between the top and bottom and greatly influences the balance of the strings).

Here Alberto adjusts the soundpost in a violin for Samuel Murillo, while he gives his feedback.

Photos by Matthew Ginn

Often it takes several adjustments before the balance is just right.

A new violin must be played so that it "opens up," which can take quite a while.

Then it's back to work again.

Photo by Matthew Ginn

Peterborough Ontario

Alberto and I took a trip yesterday to the beautiful city of Peterborough exploring some of my old haunts. I dragged Alberto all over Trent, then downtown to The Planet Bakery and then to the Silver Bean Cafe right on the river.

Peterborough Ontario

We were on the way back to the car when we both spotted a man carrying a violin case who was walking quickly several meters away from us. Alberto, always ready to speak to a potential client, and I began to pursue this stranger like spies ducking into a black door where the violinist had disappeared only moments before.


We found ourselves on the stage of the Showplace Performance Centre surrounded by musicians of the Peterborough Symphony setting up for rehearsal. In his element and without worry about his language limitations, Alberto immediately began speaking with any string player within reach. I was a bit nervous about the situation, but found that in this half hour before the rehearsal began the members of the PSO were welcoming and kind to us, two strangers who had essentially gate-crashed the place.

Showplace Performance Centre, George Street, Peterborough

We stayed through the first part of the rehearsal and had the chance to hear the soloist Bin Huang (violinist) work on Robert Gauldin's Violin Concerto, an original, vivacious piece dedicated to the PSO. The composer was at the theatre and gave his comments to this amazing, passionate soloist and to the orchestra which had clearly put in a great deal of time to interpret the piece precisely and beautifully. Unfortunately, Alberto and I had to back to Kingston early in the evening and did not have the chance to see the complete concert.

First Post

Above: Alberto Garcia (Photo by Matthew Ginn)

Hello Friends, Musicians and Others,


It has taken quite a while for us to begin to use this blog properly, but now we hope to make a start of it. Virtuos Violins is a stringed instrument construction and restoration company made up of Alberto Garcia (Luthier) and Annie Ginn (English speaker, blog writer, accountant, buyer, seller etc.).



Alberto makes violins and violas and repairs violins, violas, cellos and basses, more of which I will explain in later posts. Services include restoration, repairs, varnishing, bow rehairing, bushing and pegs, general maintenance, bridges and bridge fittings, new strings, product sales and just about anything else to do with violins.


Below: Alberto Garcia and Annie Ginn



Currently located in Kingston Ontario Canada, we will be making trips all over southern Ontario, Quebec and New York to show and sell our instruments.