News from Violin Advisor, LLC

IN THE NEWS

• In May, 2011, at the invitation of the Museo Correr in Venice, Violin Advisor Director Stewart Pollens authenticated violins in the museum's collection. Here he is holding one of the museum's treasures, a violin by Giorgio Serafin that still bears its original neck.

• Violin Advisor, LLC maintains one of the world's largest library of books devoted to musical instrument history. The library contains rare manuscripts, printed works, and facsimiles dating back to the fifteenth century, as well as a comprehensive collection of catalogs and checklists of European and American musical instrument collections.

In June and July of 2011, Violin Advisor intern Nicole Glotzer, a student at Smith College, assisted in cataloging this important resource. Shown below is part of the reference section that is used in the authentication of violins and other instruments.

• Stewart Pollens was quoted in the June 23, 2010 online issue of the Financial Times in "An investment option as fit as a fiddle."

• On June 1, 2010 Violin Advisor Director Stewart Pollens appeared as a featured speaker at the prestigious Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales. He spoke about his latest book Stradivari.

"Pollens’ previous studies on the history of the piano gave this event a pertinence and authority from the outset. The relationship between design, scientific discovery and art was immediately apparent. There’s much to be said for over analysis on subjects where the strength of pragmatism in building hands-on and less so in theory is to be held responsible for their beauty and efficiency. The violins, violas and cellos of Stradivari are testament to this and Pollens was quick to point this out. Myths were dispelled and marked research spoke volumes for the craft of these instruments." - The Hay Festival Blog,

"A meticulously detailed examination of the legendary Antonio Stradivari's methods...along with all the figures, diagrams, and enigmatic formulas, Pollens also offers juicy details from what sounds like an exciting life: who knew, for example, that Stradivari married his first wife, Francesca, just three years after her brother murdered her first husband?" - The New Yorker

"As befits the author of the 1992 The Violin Forms of Antonio Stradivari, [Pollens] offers a detailed study of how the violins were crafted, how tinyb variations in form can be deconstructed back to source in paper drawings and templates . . . a masterly study by an acknowledged expert rather than the usual Googled 'object history' that clogs the shelves." - The Tablet

"[Pollens] has laid it bare with an analytical method that explodes myths and re-determines facts. . .
Any future researcher will find his work a fruitful bounty of information." - The Galpin Society Journal

"Monumental" - Early Music America

Take this link to read the review by Andrew Manze in Early Music

• On May 21, 2010 Pollens delivered a paper on problems encountered in the dating of violins by the technique of dendrochronology at the International Workshop on Diagnostics and Preservation of Musical Instruments presented by DISMEC (Department of History and Methods for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage), University of Bologna, Ravenna, Italy.

• As part of its Outreach Program, Violin Advisor LLC regularly donates violins to schools and educational programs. Thus far, we have provided over a dozen violin outfits to schools across the country. Most recently, Violin Advisor LLC donated a violin and bow to Midori & Friends, which they presented to one of their students at their May 8, 2010 Annual Children's Music Festival.