Author Archives: KindaScratchy

From the New York Times: OLIVEBRIDGE, N.Y. — On a spring Sunday in the Catskill Mountains, Jay Ungar, a fiddler wearing a black vest and hiking boots, and his wife, Molly Mason, playing guitar, stood on a stage in a … Continue reading →

From the Kansas City Star: No delusions here. Daniel Bernard Roumain knows what most kids think about the violin. “Not very cool, not very cool at all,” he said once to a group of high school musicians. “Bass guitar, cool. … Continue reading →

From The Guardian: If Yaron Zilberman’s film, A Late Quartet, can’t make Christopher Walken and company look like real string players, at least it understands the dynamics of a quartet. It’s very difficult to make an actor look as if … Continue reading →

From the Huffington Post: There is nothing we love more than an impressive freestyle throw down, except perhaps an impressive freestyle throw down accompanied by a classical instrument. The unlikely combo of rap and violin is causing quite a stir … Continue reading →

From NBC News: Virtuosos who describe the singing voice of a violin may be on to something. The great violin makers, such as Stradivari and Guarneri, may have designed violins to mimic the human voice, new research suggests. The research, … Continue reading →

From ABC News: A battery of forensics tests has determined that a violin found in a British man’s attic is the instrument that was used by the bandmaster of the Titanic to play, according to lore, “Nearer My God to … Continue reading →

From ubergizmo.com: 3D printing seems to be in the news as of late, and apart from obvious hobbyist escapades and medical purposes, you can also make use of 3D printing to roll out something totally different – case in point, … Continue reading →

From PostStar.com (Glen Falls, NY): It’s hard to imagine Geoffrey Ovington’s Shushan studio was once a dairy barn filled with hay bales. It’s even harder to believe this building is a workshop where he produces world-class stringed instruments — there … Continue reading →

From Smithsonian Magazine: On May 1st, 1863, Solomon Conn bought a violin in Nashville, Tennessee. By the end of his years as an infantryman in Company B of the 87th Indiana Volunteers, he’d re-purposed it into a diary, inscribing its … Continue reading →

From Strings magazine (www.allthingsstrings.com): Howard Thronson seems like an even-tempered guy. But his voice takes on a certain edge when he starts talking about timber poaching in the forests of Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula, where he began his career as … Continue reading →