A New Personality Enters the Scene

I made trip to France in July to collect two instruments -- a viola for me and a violin for my 13 year old daughter Eliza, both newly made by a man living in Brittany named Frank Ravatin. This is a maker who has been earning quite a reputation in the world lately, and from whom several local musicians have already bought instruments (Eric Pritchard has been playing a violin by Ravatin for the past year or so. Mark Furth of Chapel Hill recently arranged for Ravatin to make a set of instruments for the Miro Quartet, an event that gathered national attention).

Frank began work on the two instruments early in the summer and, as agreed, I arrived in Brittany in mid-July to take possession of them. In a business where instruments can be hundreds of years old, it was a striking experience to pick up two on which the varnish was literally still sticky. I was understandably a little nervous making this trip all the way to France to pick up newly made instruments, sight unseen. What if their quality was less than I had hoped? I could always say "no thanks" and return empty handed, but that would have made the whole trip (and the 3 years of anticipation) futile -- and it would have been rather awkward, to say the least.

I'd pretty much decided to buy them even if I was disappointed initially, since new instruments always take time to develop their full sound. The first six months -- even the first month -- can make a huge difference. The surprise, however, was that they were captivating from the start. First of all they are beautifully made; I can't stop gazing at the viola when I'm in rehearsal. And, it may be partly infatuation, but so far I have been neglecting my old viola, which is quite a nice instrument itself and one which has been my mainstay since I came of age as a player.

In short both violin and viola really exceeded my expectations, and I am now involved in the exciting process of getting to know the personalities of these new members of our household. It really does have personality, this viola. And Daughter Eliza is for her part becoming acquainted with the violin that will likely become her lifelong companion. It has given a new twist and interest to our daily routines!