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 odedkishony@gmail.com 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 and 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.