Sophie Heinrich

Sophie Heinrich is a German violinist, writer, and teacher known for being the first female concertmaster of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (2019 to 2023.)  Prior to that engagement, she was the concertmaster of the Berlin Comic Opera Orchestra (2012 to 2019.)  The Berlin Comic Opera Company produces operas, light operas, ballets, concerts, and musicals and is known for being very innovative.  She has also served as concertmaster in other German orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Bavarian State Opera (one of Carlos Kleiber’s favorite orchestras), and the Dresden State Orchestra.  Although she has concertized and taught classes in the U.S., Asia, and South America, Heinrich’s career has for the most part been spent in Europe.  Her webpage is easy to find on the internet.  She began her violin studies at age 4 but I don’t know who her first teacher was.  She later studied at the Hanns Eisler school in Berlin with Antje Weithaas (Director of the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hanover); at the Lubeck University of Music (which is about 150 miles northwest of Berlin) with Thomas Brandis (former concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic and pupil of Max Rostal); and received additional instruction from Reinhard Goebel (at Austria’s Mozarteum), Lothar Strauss (concertmaster of the State Orchestra of Berlin), Gidon Kremer, Midori, and the Artemis String Quartet.  For a time (approximately 2010 to 2017), she was Thomas Brandis’ assistant in Lubeck.  Heinrich has won top prizes at various violin competitions, including the Leopold Mozart competition in 1999, and the Max Rostal Competition in 2002.  She was awarded the Possehl Music Prize in Lubeck in 2008.  Besides concertizing as a soloist and chamber music player, Heinrich currently teaches at a private music school in Feldkirch, Germany, the Stella Vorarlberg Private University.  She is also the leader of the string section at the Grafenegg Academy, located about thirty miles from Vienna.  The Academy takes place during the summer at Grafenegg Castle and involves classes in various disciplines in music.  It is open (via audition) to young musicians from all over the world.  Heinrich’s emphasis in teaching is the encouragement of female leadership.  She is, as are most violinists, fluent in three languages.  She has said that her Bible is Bach, her soul is Haydn (and Mozart), and her passion is Tango.  (Incidentally, other classical violinists who love dancing are: Tai Murray, Maxim Vengerov, Stefan Milenkovich, Rusanda Panfili, and Andrew Sords.  Violinists from the past who, in addition to being musicians were also professional dancers, are Jean Marie Leclair and Joseph de Bologne.)  Here is one of Heinrich’s YouTube videos of a recent concert featuring the popular Mozart Turkish concerto.  Heinrich has played a Stradivari violin from 1698, a G.B. Guadagnini from 1753, and a modern violin by David Bague, a well-known luthier from Barcelona.  (Leonidas Kavakos and Ruggiero Ricci also own violins by this violin maker.  Bague has said that he aspires to create instruments to which nobody can be indifferent, which I think is a very noble attitude toward his craft.)

Daniel Kurganov

Daniel Kurganov (Daniel Alexandrovich Kurganov) is an American violinist, violist, pedagogue, musicologist, producer, and entrepreneur, born (in Minsk, Belarus, in the former USSR) on November 29, 1986.  (Minsk is a city located about 100 miles southeast of Vilnius, Lithuania – the birthplace of Jascha Heifetz – and 450 miles southwest of Moscow.)  He is well known for (almost certainly) being the only concert violinist in history to have begun his violin studies after the age of 12.  He is also very well known for (indisputably) having the most comprehensive violin tutorial YouTube Channel, which addresses every conceivable issue having to do with technique and interpretation – bowing, shifting, legato, vibrato, articulation, scales, phrasing, intonation, etc..  Kurganov has over 47,000 subscribers on YouTube and his channel is still growing.  On other social media, he has a strong presence as well.  As if that weren’t enough, he delves into related subjects which are fascinating for professionals and non-professionals alike.  One of his popular videos features him playing the da Vinci Stradivarius violin previously owned by Toscha Seidel, which was recently sold for more than 15 million dollars.  In fact, Kurganov began his YouTube channel posting (from his collection) old 78 RPM recordings by Seidel.  His teaching and recording projects have been highlighted in The Strad, the most respected classical music periodical in the world.  He maintains a private teaching studio in the Boston (USA) area but also teaches virtually via Zoom.  He can spend anywhere between 10 seconds (!!!) and more than an hour assessing a prospective student.  His family had moved from Minsk to the Chicago area when he was still a child and he further relocated from Chicago to Boston in 2011.  Besides being a violinist (and violist), he has something else in common with Nicolo Paganini – he began his instrumental studies with piano and guitar.  Kurganov switched to violin at age 16.  His first teacher was Alla Danichkina in Chicago.  Up to that point, Danichkina had been Kurganov’s piano teacher but she happened to also be a violinist so the transition was uninterrupted.  Having overcome prodigious obstacles, he made his professional violin debut not in a concert hall but in a Russian restaurant in the Chicago area, playing violin duos with his violin teacher in 2003 at the age of 17 – many concert artists are half way through their solo careers by that age.  This brings us to another special coincidence: Josef Gingold, Albert Sammons, Alfredo Campoli, Joseph Roisman, Manuel Quiroga, Jacques Thibaud, Theodore Thomas, Vasa Prihoda, Geza Legocky, and Louis Krasner also played in hotels, restaurants, and nightclubs prior to establishing their classical careers. (That is a little-known fact.)  Among his other teachers is Rudolf Koelman (in Switzerland), protégé of Jascha Heifetz.  Although Kurganov is widely respected for his achievements and artistry, he has also faced professional bias due to his late start.  (The world of classical violin is extremely competitive but a quick look at one of his videos – or his CDs - will quickly dissuade anyone from that biased point of view.)  Quite interestingly, it was only his colleagues who tried to persuade him to give up (since he was starting so late); his teachers never advised him to drop out.  Kurganov has concertized in the U.S, Europe, and the Far East.  He also plays duo recitals with pianist Constantine Finehouse as well as in a piano trio.  Although he will spontaneously alter a phrase in the midst of a live performance, in the tradition of Szigeti and Heifetz, Kurganov is a rigorous and meticulous violinist.  In that regard, he might be considered to be the opposite of violinists like Ivry Gitlis, Gilles Apap, and Sergei Stadler, whose approach is rather impetuous, giving the impression that their performances could become unhinged at any moment.  Kurganov’s repertoire includes many technically demanding contemporary works but he has said that contemporary composers need to not “make the violin seem overqualified for the job.”  Reviews of his performances speak for themselves.  Outside of the violin and pedagogic world, Kurganov’s other interests include chess (which almost 100% of concert violinists play) and photography - as a photographer, he is still entertaining the idea of having a solo exhibition.  Kurganov has also designed a shoulder rest which may soon reach the market.  As we all know, history has a way of repeating itself - after one unique concert in Switzerland, Kurganov was paid in gold (after playing for nobility, Mozart used to be paid with jewels or snuff boxes, Elias Breeskin received a valuable ring, and Bronislaw Huberman received a violin as payment.)  Kurganov has played and had access to priceless violins throughout his career (violins by old masters like Stradivari and Guarneri) but his current violin is a modern violin by Andrew Ryan.  He has stated that three artists with whom he would like to spend time conversing are J.S. Bach, Glenn Gould, and Daniil Shafran (an interesting choice.)

 

David Grimal

David Grimal is a French violinist, conductor, and teacher born on February 9, 1973.  He is best known as the Artistic Director (and Conductor) of the French group Les Dissonances.  Ironically, Les Dissonances plays without a conductor and performs challenging repertoire (such as the Rite of Spring) which no other conductor-less orchestra would dare.  Grimal leads from the first chair.  Regarding Les Dissonances, Grimal has stated: “We work together in the sense of community of mind, a gathering of very strong positive energy and joy.”  Regarding the violin itself, he has said: “What interests me is the invisible - that something which makes the dancer take flight and causes his gesture to be eternal.”  The Dissonances musicians are from different parts of France and Europe – from various other ensembles – almost none are permanent members.  The orchestra plays in many different cities and venues.  Understandably, Grimal frequently plays the violin concerto repertoire with this orchestra.  When he does, he never actually conducts, as all other conductor/violinists do - he just lets the orchestra play by itself (and it is fully capable of doing so.)  His style of playing, although virtuosic and brilliant, is relaxed, unassuming, and unpretentious.  His repertoire includes the Schumann concerto, which is now gaining in popularity.  Grimal began lessons at age five but I do not know the name of his first teacher.  First teachers are usually not famous pedagogues or even famous violinists – sometimes they are immediate family members.  At the Paris Conservatory Grimal won first prizes in violin and chamber music at age 20 (1993.)  He later studied with the enigmatic Philippe Hirschhorn, most likely in the Netherlands, where Hirschhorn was then teaching.  He also briefly studied with other violinists after he graduated.  In 1996, he received the European Culture Prize.  He was 23 years old.  Needless to say, he has played in most of the world’s great halls with high-profile conductors and orchestras.  However, other than live recordings, his discography (on various labels) is not extensive.  Nonetheless, the few studio (commercial) recordings he has done have received national and international awards and recognition.  A great many composers have written works for him.  In 2004 Grimal founded Les Dissonances.  In 2008, he became artist in residence at the Dijon Opera.  (Dijon is about 200 miles southeast of Paris and is the birthplace of Rameau.)  Grimal has taught at the Advanced School of Music in Saarbrucken (Germany) for some time although I don’t know how long he has been there.  (Saarbrucken is about 180 miles north of Dijon and 200 miles east of Paris.  It is very close to the French border with Germany.)  Additionally, he plays at many music festivals around Europe and has frequently held masterclasses wherever he performs.  His violin is the Roederer Stradivarius from 1710, previously owned by Turkish violinist Ayla Erduran.  He also plays a modern violin made for him by French luthier Jacques Fustier.  You can listen to the finale from Brahms’ Third Symphony here.  Here is Grimal playing Mozart’s fifth concerto – first movement.  

Alexander Markov

Alexander Markov is a Russian (some would say American) violinist, composer, and teacher born (in Moscow) on January 24, 1963.  Although his repertoire is very extensive, he is best known for his performances (in concert, on CD, and DVD) of the 24 Paganini Caprices.  One YouTube video of his performance of the last Caprice has over 6 million views.  In fact, Markov’s playing of the pizzicato section of this Caprice sometimes leaves the audience so spellbound they interrupt the performance with rapturous, spontaneous applause – as the New York Times music critic recently explained it: “…the dazzling left-hand pizzicato variation drew a vigorous ovation midway through the work.”  Markov also plays a six-string electric violin in a rock band which he co-founded.  He co-wrote a unique rock concerto for his own use which he has had great success with.  I don’t think a commercial recording of this concerto is yet available.  Markov’s violin studies began at age 5.  His father (concert violinist Albert Markov) was his first (and most influential) teacher.  However, Markov was also enrolled at the famous Central Music School for gifted children, which is part of the Moscow (Tchaikovsky) Conservatory. There, he studied with the well-known violin pedagogue Felix Andrievsky.  (Andrievsky is now teaching at the Royal College of Music in London.)  By age 8 he had already appeared in public.  His family emigrated to the U. S. when he was 12.  They arrived in Vienna on September 11, 1975 and spent three months there before heading for the United States.  He continued studying with his father for many years.  At age 16, he made his Carnegie Hall debut in New York.  (Two sources state that he made his Carnegie Hall debut on October 9, 1983, at age 20.  He himself has said he made his debut at age 16.  The first was his debut with orchestra; the second was as soloist, in recital.)  At age 18, he began studying with Juilliard teacher Ivan Galamian.  Galamian died a few months afterward.  (Emanuel Vardi used to tell a joke that he killed Leopold Auer because Auer died a few months after Vardi began taking lessons with him.)  At age 19 (1982) Markov won second prize (most sources say the Gold Medal) at the famous Paganini Competition (Genoa, Italy) and five years later he received the Avery Fisher Career Grant.  As a result of his Paganini Competition award, he was granted the use of Paganini’s own 1743 Cannone Guarnerius for a recital performance.  (Other violinists who have played this famous violin are Leonid Kogan, Schlomo Mintz, Eugene Fodor, Salvatore Accardo, Maxim Vengerov, Gerard Poulet, Regina Carter, Anna Tifu, Dmitri Berlinsky, and Ruggiero Ricci.)  Markov’s concertizing has taken him to all corners of the world and to most of the world’s great concert halls and orchestras with top conductors on the podium.  As do most concert violinists, he also participates in music festivals far and wide.  He also frequently gives masterclasses all around the world.  He has recorded for the Erato and Warner Classics labels.  His recordings are easy to find on the internet.  Although he used to play a Guarnerius Del Gesu violin, Markov has been playing a 1970 Sergio Peresson violin for some time.  He recorded the 24 caprices on that violin.  I have heard it up close - it is indistinguishable from any Strad or Guarneri violin.  Here is a YouTube video of the Paganini Caprice number 5 with Markov using the original bowings.  The photo is courtesy of the Alexander Markov website. 

Jose Luis Garcia

Jose Luis Garcia (Jose Luis Garcia Asensio) was a Spanish violinist born (in Madrid) on February 25, 1944.  He is best known for being the concertmaster of the English Chamber Orchestra for about 25 years.  Just as the names Ferdinand David, Raymond Gniewek, Glenn Dicterow, Norman Carol, and Richard Burgin unfailingly bring up the names of their respective orchestras (the Gewandhaus, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony, respectively), Garcia's biography is inextricably linked to the history of the ECO.  He spent nearly his entire career in England.  His first studies were with his father beginning at age 6.  If he studied with anyone else in Spain, I do not know who that was.  In 1960, he received first prize at the Sarasate competition in Pamplona.  He was 16 years old.  Thereafter (in 1961) he traveled to London to study with Antonio Brosa at the Royal College of Music.  He appeared in concert in a Vivaldi concerto (for four violins in B minor) at a Proms concert (in 1963) at age 19 with the BBC Symphony.  Malcolm Sargent was on the podium.  Two years later, in 1965, he joined the pit orchestra of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.  In 1967, he toured South America with the English Chamber Orchestra (playing Principal Second Violin.)  However, by then, he had already (intermittently) played several concerts with the orchestra.  In 1968, he was appointed associate concertmaster of the orchestra.  He was 24 years old.  In 1970, he made his second debut as a soloist at another Proms concert.  On that occasion, he played Michael Tippett’s Fantasia Concertante (on a theme by Corelli) with the English Chamber Orchestra, of which, as previously mentioned, he was then Associate Concertmaster.  The composer was on the podium.  By that time, Garcia was already teaching at the Royal College of Music, where he had begun teaching at age 22, being the youngest to ever get a teaching appointment at that school. (Garcia taught at the Royal College of Music until 1982 - a total of fifteen or sixteen years.)  At age 23, he led the string section for one of the Beatles’ most famous albums.  With the English Chamber Orchestra, Garcia would also conduct and perform as soloist.  He eventually toured almost every country in the world.  Although he recorded as a soloist, he far more frequently recorded as an orchestral leader with the ECO.  His best-known solo recording is probably Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.  He also recorded Mozart’s five concertos and the Bach Double Concerto with the ECO.  The recordings are easily found on the internet.  It has been said that the English Chamber Orchestra is the most recorded chamber orchestra in the world, having recorded more than 1,500 individual works, even though multiple recordings of the same works (the Mozart piano concertos, for instance) are probably included in that number.  (Although the orchestra generates quite a bit of revenue on its own, the orchestra also has an outstanding Patron - the Prince of Wales.)  Garcia never wavered from his romantic interpretations of baroque works, unlike other British chamber ensembles (the English Concert, the Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Baroque Soloists, etc.) which embraced the period instrument (authentic performance practice) musical movements beginning in the late 1960s.  It is quite interesting that in 1983-1984 Garcia offered his services to the musical establishment in Spain to conduct master classes free-of-charge (in Spain) but never got a call in response.  Later on – between 1992 and 1999 – he taught at the Queen Sofia School of Music in Madrid and conducted the school’s orchestra with which he also toured extensively.  Garcia studied conducting with Sergiu Celibidache.  Among the orchestras he guest conducted (outside of England and Spain) are the National Symphony (Washington, D.C.), the Detroit Symphony, and the Israel Chamber Orchestra.  He also guest conducted the Ft Worth (Texas, USA) Chamber Orchestra many times, beginning with a concert going back to October of 1977.  His last concert with that orchestra was probably in October of 1992.  As does another famous concertmaster in the U.S. (from the Boston Symphony), Garcia loved golf.  He was also one of the very few musicians (and possibly the only violinist anywhere) who owned a Rolls Royce automobile.  Garcia played the (Fritz) Hirt Stradivarius from 1704, also known as the Prince (Serge) Obolensky Strad and now known as the Hirt-Garcia Strad.  Among the many other violins he played was a modern violin constructed by American luthier Terry Borman.  (Among the many players who also play Borman violins are Pinchas Zukerman, Jaime Laredo, Pamela Frank, and Joseph Silverstein.)  The Strad is presently owned by a private collector but is on loan to American violinist Esther Yoo.  If there are any videos of Garcia's myriad solo concerts out there, they have not yet been uploaded to YouTube.  Garcia died on August 11, 2011, at age 67.  (Photo is courtesy of the English Chamber Orchestra) 

Stefan Milenkovich

Stefan Milenkovich (Milenkovic) is a Serbian violinist and teacher born (in Belgrade) on January 25, 1977.  He began studying at an extremely young age – age 3, just like Jascha Heifetz.  His first teacher was his father – again, just as Heifetz’ father was his first teacher as well.  As have other famous violinists – Bronislaw Huberman, Bronislaw Gimpel, Leonora Jackson, Julia Igonina, Hilary Hahn, Natasha Korsakova, and Chloe Hanslip among them - he has performed for world leaders, including President Reagan, President Gorbachev, and Pope John Paul II.  By age 6, he had already given his first public concert.  By 1994, he had played over 1000 concerts.  He was only 16 years old.  Ruggiero Ricci played over 5000 concerts by the time he retired at age 85.  That is probably a world record, although I am not sure about that.  At the rate he was going, Milenkovich would have to play until age 57 before he would surpass the 5000 number; however, few concert artists nowadays play more than 50 concerts per season.  Also in that year (1994), Milenkovic graduated from the University of Belgrade.  He then began studying in New York with Dorothy Delay at Juilliard.  In 2003, he began teaching at that same school.  He was 26 years old.  All the while, he was concertizing all over the world.  He has been known to dance - in the fashion of Maxim Vengerov - during special recitals.  Three other violinists that I know of are (or were) also very good dancers; Jean Marie Leclair,  Andrew Sords, and Tai Murray.  As does Simone Lamsma, Milenkovich loves violin competitions and has won a number of them or placed in the top three, including the Indianapolis, the Queen Elizabeth, the Yehudi Menuhin, the Paganini, and the Spohr competitions.  He has recorded several CDs which are easy to find on the internet.  Currently he teaches at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (about 130 miles south of Chicago) and at the University of Belgrade (since December 26, 2011.)  Here is one of many YouTube videos of him – it features Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen. Milenkovich currently plays a modern violin - a 2006 violin by Chicago luthier Peter Aznavoorian.  

Andrew Sords

Andrew Sords is an American violinist and teacher born (in Newark, Delaware) on June 4, 1985.  As do violinists Hilary Hahn and Joshua Bell, Sords writes a blog to keep his wide audience informed about things related to his career; he also writes about his unique view of many other things as well.  I will say that his website is worth visiting for the blog alone although you will see so much more.  His repertoire includes two of my favorite and (unfortunately) seldom-played concertos – Bruch’s second concerto in d minor and the Schumann concerto.  In fact, I think the time will come when every concert violinist will take on both of these neglected concertos and perform them as regularly as the Brahms and Tchaikovsky.  Incidentally, the Schumann concerto was in danger of never surfacing thanks to a low opinion of it given to Clara Schumann (Robert Schumann’s widow) by none other than Joseph Joachim.  Sords has a very active solo concert and chamber music career which has taken him all over the globe.  He has given concerts with over 100 (different) orchestras, including the well-known major ones, and played the most important venues in every continent.  That may well be a record for any violinist but even those numbers, of course, will continue to increase.  Sords began to study violin privately at about age 6.  His first teacher was Liza Grossman.  However, his first instrumental studies were actually on piano, which he still plays.  He thus joins a number of concert violinists who have been quite proficient as pianists - Fritz Kreisler, Louis Persinger, Jascha Heifetz, Arthur Grumiaux, Andor Toth, Arabella Steinbacher, and Julia Fischer just to name a few.  Sords later studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Southern Methodist University.  His main teachers were Linda Cerone (pupil of Ivan Galamian), David Russell, and Chee-Yun (Kim Chee Yun – pupil of Dorothy DeLay.)  As do violinists Maxim Vengerov and Tai Murray, Sords enjoys and has a deep appreciation for dancing and has even participated in the famous “Dancing With The Stars” show for a charity benefit.  He was the first classical artist to do so.  That may seem unusual but French violinist Jean-Marie LeClair was actually a professional dancer, choreographer, and violinist in the early 1700s.  Sords is also unique in that he plays a modern violin constructed in 1912 by Belgian violin maker Augustine Talisse, a violin maker I had never heard of until now.  Albert Markov, Tai Murray, Christian Tetzlaff, Giora Schmidt, Judith Ingolfsson, Pip Clarke, Ilya Kaler, and Alina Pogostkina are among the growing number of concert violinists who are gravitating to modern instruments which, as you may know from reading this blog, I also favor.  Sords’ performances are typically characterized by music critics as being “utterly radiant.”  You can see his Facebook page here.  His most recent audio release is the New Age music CD with composer Sean Christopher.  

Alina Pogostkina

Alina Pogostkina is a Russian violinist born (in Leningrad) on November 18, 1983.  She began her lessons at age 4 with her father and gave her first concert one year later.  When she was 8 years old (1992), her family moved to Heidelberg, Germany.  According to one source, she and both of her parents - both are violinists – for some time made a living playing on the street.  Marie Hall did essentially the same thing in England, though without her parents.  Pogostkina is said to favor modern music.  She attended the Advanced School for Music in Berlin, studying with Antje Weithaas.  Along the way, she participated in several competitions, eventually winning the Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki in December of 2005, using a modern violin by Falk Peters.  She had already won the Louis Spohr Competition in 1997 (Freiburg, Germany) at age 14.  She also participated in the Queen Elizabeth and the Indianapolis Violin Competitions (2001 and 2002, respectively.)  Pogostkina now plays all over the world, accompanied by the best orchestras and the best conductors.  She also participates in quite a few music festivals around the world.  Her sound and technique is similar to Hilary Hahn’s – very crisp, emphatic, and clean with flawless intonation - but her musicianship is different.  YouTube has a few videos of her performances.  One is here, showing a complete (and spectacular) performance of the Sibelius concerto.  For a while, she was playing a 1709 Stradivarius violin, a loan from the German Music Instrument Fund.  Pogostkina now plays a modern violin by ChristianBayon.  Of course, if you are a regular reader of this blog, you know I absolutely favor modern violins over any old instrument.  The reason is that they are at least equal to any Amati, Strad, Guadagnini, Goffriller, or Guarneri and, in most cases, much better.  

What you get for $5 million

As almost everyone knows, old Italian violins – especially Strads, Guarneris, and Guadagninis - are priced at far more than their weight in gold.  Their prices are now set so high hardly any artist can afford them.  In the old days, it was not unusual for someone in the nobility or a wealthy patron to gift a valuable instrument to a violinist.  Such a thing happened to Nicolo Paganini, Teresa Milanollo, and a host of other violinists.  Nowadays, pricy violins are owned by philanthropic foundations, banks, investors, or private collectors.  They usually lend their instruments out to worthy players – most of them young.  However, players are beginning to realize that many new instruments are as good as old ones – even the very best Strads – and the new ones can be purchased for less than two percent of the price of an old one.  That’s right, two percent.  During the time he owned it, Menuhin would take his (1934) replica of his Strad (the Khevenhuller - 1733) to concerts where he thought the original might be in danger.  Nobody knew.  Obviously, the sound did not give it away.  That tells you something.  Outstanding modern makers such as Sergio Peresson, Douglas Cox, David Burgess, Joseph Curtin, Greg Alf, Michael Darnton, David Gusset, Mario Miralles, Gregory Sapp, and quite a few others have constructed stupendous violins which have been praised by some of the world’s top violinists.  These violins are priced between ten and forty thousand dollars.  It has been stated that it can take a violin anywhere between six months to seventy five years to open up (though that, of course, is highly debatable.)  My own replica of Paganini’s famous Cannone was constructed by Daniel Houck from Ohio.  It is my second violin from Houck.  Since I am not a concert violinist with a sizable budget, I partly based my decision to commission Mr. Houck on price comparisons.  Houck’s price cannot be beat because he is at the beginning of his career as a maker.  The violin itself, which was completed just three weeks ago, is a wonderful instrument – it does everything a good violin should: it’s extremely responsive, clear, powerful, warm in quality, and even in tone across all strings.  What more can anyone ask?  The rest is entirely up to my bow arm.