VIOLIN ADVISOR

Mr. Pollens' recent book, The Manual of Musical Instrument Conservation, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2015. It is the first comprehensive guide to the conservation and maintenance of historic musical instruments, and is the distillation of thirty years work as the conservator of musical instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His book Stradivari was published in 2010 by Cambridge University Press. It includes new biographical information on Stradivari and a detailed analysis of his violin, viola da gamba, lute, mandola, guitar, and harp patterns. Both are currently available for purchase at Cambridge University Press and at a discount at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.  Other works of Mr. Pollens includeThe Violin Forms of Antonio Stradivari, The Early Pianoforte, Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, François-Xavier Tourte: Bow Maker, The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar and Bartolomeo Cristofori and the Invention of the Piano.  He is currently writing A History of Keyboard Instruments, which is scheduled for publication by Cambridge University Press in 2020. He is a contributor to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and writes on a regular basis for The Strad.

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Mr. Pollens is frequently engaged as a guest lecturer on musical instruments. He recently gave a preconcert talk at Stanford University's Lively Arts series and delivered papers at the following conferences: Rencontres Internationales, 2008, Lausanne, Switzerland; Colloque International organized by the Ensemble Baroque de Limoges, 2007, La Borie-en-Limousin, France; and the VIII Festival Internacional de Musica de Tecla Espanola "Diego Fernandez," 2007, Almeria, Spain. His presentation at the Philoctetes Center in New York on April 15, 2008 can be seen on YouTube.   In May, 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.  In June, 2010 he appeared as a featured guest at the prestigious Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye, Wales, where he spoke about his book Stradivari. On September 29, 2015, Mr. Pollens spoke about recent research on violin acoustics and authentication at a joint meeting of the Galpin Society, the Institute of Acoustics, and the Royal Musical Association hosted by Cambridge University.

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Further biographical information and a list of publications can be found at www,StewartPollens.com