October 2014
Many thanks, Martin, for helping us get a violin that’s just right for my daughter Isla. First of all, your explanations by email about how violins are valued helped us to work out that we were looking for a violin whose value is entirely in its sound, rather than in its antique collectability.
Until then, I hadn’t appreciated how a violin can have a very high price with a very poor sound. Your website list of assessments of all the many violins that you’ve played also helped us to see how my daughter’s previous violin which she had borrowed from school might compare with another one that might be available for loan from her university. And your website also explained what we might look for in a violin’s sound.
You obviously put a lot of thought into the collection of 8 or so violins for Isla to try, as they were about right for someone of her level – post-diploma, starting out as a student of music at Oxford University, and interested in violin performance as part of her career. Thank you for letting us spend the whole afternoon in your workshop, trying out all these violins until we whittled the choice down to two violins which sounded beautiful. Your guidance towards the one that would be more suitable for someone whose performance would include solos was helpful for us as non-specialists in this area.
Isla has now been playing her new violin with a new teacher and in at least 6 different orchestras and ensembles and is very happy with it, so a big thank you from us for thinking of it for Isla, for having it available, and for guiding us towards it. A good job done!
Cathy R, Scotland
