I usually have
an apprentice working with me. As an apprentice, one will learn repair
and restoration, instrument set ups, bow rehairs, and have an opportunity
to make a violin, viola, or cello. If you are interested in becoming
an apprentice please send me an e-mail Oded
Kishony with a short biography and why you want to learn violinmaking. Cost is $5000 per year or less depending on experience
Several apprentices
and I had the opportunity to visit the Library of Congress in Washington
DC, where several Stradivarius Violins are housed. The instruments were
brought out to us for examinination and we were also able to play them.
This was certainly a highlight for all of us.
Seth Truby, Oded Kishony, Pattie Epps, Aram Zarasyan holding Stradivarius
violins at the Library of Congress, Washington DC
Some
Past Apprentices
Aram
Zarasyan
Aram
received a grant from the Churchill Foundations to study violin repair
and making. He found my name in the Strad Magazine Resource guide
and contacted me. Aram studied and stayed at our house for eight weeks
in the summer of 2001. During that time he completely finished a violin
in the white (+ two coats of varnish/sealer) as well as completing
many repairs, rehairs and set ups. He has completed 3 more violins
since he studied with me, and has sold 2 of them. Aram lives in Sydney
Australia and is a violinist (past principle) with the Sydney
Opera.
Seth
Truby
Seth
joined me in 1999 as an apprentice, after having worked at the Ifshin
violin shop in Berkeley, California. Seth studied with me for two
years. During that time he did many repairs and set up many instruments.
He also undertook a major restoration of a cello which turned out
very successfully. Seth also completed two violas and a violin. All
the instruments he made while apprenticing with me were sold. Seth
has since opened his own shop in Oberlin, Ohio (2002).
Pattie Epps
Pattie spent several years setting up instruments and doing repairs on a part time basis.
Recently she acquired a violin that was begun but never completed by a German violinmaker
in the year 1900. Pattie finished it in 2001. Pattie made a new neck and scroll for this
violin since those parts were never made by the original violinmaker. Pattie has taken a
leave from the violin trade to work on her Ph.D. She is currently doing the field work for
her degree in Linguistic Anthropology. She is living in Brazil at a remote village in the Amazon.
She has a laptop computer and satellite phone, as well as a solar collector which allows her to
send emails. The village where she is living has no electricity or phone service.
There are many interesting things to see and do in Charlottesville,
Albemarle County, and the surrounding area. And Virginia is very rich
in history.
Points of Interest in and around Charlottesville, Va:
- University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson
- Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson
- Ash Lawn-Highland, the home of James Monroe
- Montpelier, the home of James Madison
- Washington, DC (approximately 75 mile north of Charlottesville)
