BIG TURNOUT FOR FIRST COMPETITION

In the village of Little Switzerland, high in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, the Southern Violin Association held its first Biennial Violin Makers’ Competition. Held at the Wildacres Retreat, a non-profit facility dedicated to the arts and crafts of the region, more than 40 makers from all over the USA gathered for two days and three evenings.

1 st Prize Workmanship Alvaro Corrochano New York City

1 st Prize Tone Jack Rasmussen Arlington, Texas

The event was organized by David Chandler, President of the Association. He was aided by an award-winning judging staff that included Chris Germain of Philadelphia, Kelvin Scott of Knoxville (pictured right), and John Montgomery of Raleigh, in the Workmanship category. These three represent some of America’s finest violin makers and restorers.

Atlanta Symphony’s Juan Ramirez assisted board member Pablo Alfaro in judging the Tone category, and they played the winning violins for us. Cameron Robertson, a member of the Association’s board, was instrumental in selling more than $600 in raffle tickets, and acted as co-coordinator of the event, and deserves a special note.

UPDATE ------------- MAKERS’ COMPETITION 2017

The Southern Violin Association is having its first ever Violin Makers’ Competition to be held at Wild Acres Retreat, just outside the village of Little Switzerland in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. The competition is for violins only (this first time anyway) and is open to anyone. Here is a link to a map to Wild-acres Retreat At this time we’ve got over a dozen entries, and I’ll be going to the VSA next week to spread the word and hand out leaflets. I have International Violin Company putting leaflets in their shipments, as well as Howard Core Company, and Metropolitan Music, so I think there will be at least 50 instruments.

The conference will be held at Wild-acres Retreat. This is a very special place, being somewhat rustic and remote, very different when compared to VSA’s grand hotel atmosphere. This will be a lot more personable, and I think, memorable as it will be entirely focused on violin-making, without distractions of televisions and internet activities. You’re evenings will be preoccupied with bon-fire, beer kegs, wild tales, show and tell, and some live music. We have booked 20 rooms that accommodate 40 persons. Accommodations for one at the Retreat will cost $275 and includes 3 nights stay, and 8 meals. These are double occupancy rooms, with 2 separate beds, and a private bath. If you wish to stay alone, there will be a surcharge, as the Association has to pay for 40 beds, whether we use them of not, so the only way to make this work will be for everyone to share. When you make your reservation to attend I’ll read off a list of who’s already booked but not yet paired up, so you can decide who you might be willing to share with. We encourage you to stay on site, as there will be a lot going on, all day and through the evenings, so even though sharing a room might be a little inconvenient, the payoff is huge in terms of convenience, and comrade-ship. We will try to accommodate anyone’s preference so let us know what those are. Here is a link to Wildacres Retreat’s web site. http://www.wildacres.org/

SUBJECT: ANNUAL MEETING

April 23-24, 2016 The next annual meeting of the Southern Violin Association will be held on April 23 and 24 (a Saturday and Sunday) in 2016. The venue will be Georgia’s School of Music at the University of Georgia at Athens. The meeting will begin at 10am on the 23d. Parking will be at Lot E111 (it says by permit only, but that doesn’t apply on the weekends), and we’ll have sign directing you to the venue which will be inside the building directly in front of the parking lot.

Last year’s meeting was standing room only, with at least 37 participants. We hope to repeat that this year. Last year’s meeting was too short, not enough time for lunch, not enough time to let every speaker make a full presentation, and not enough time just getting together and having some good interaction and making new contacts. So this year, we’ve set aside two days, and an evening, to have a chance to really get together and have a good time getting to know each other.

Speakers will include Kelvin Scott, a multiple gold medal winner in international competitions at the Violin Society of American, and bronze medal winner at the Triennial competition in Cremona. Also making a presentation will be Jerry Pasewicz, internationally respected violin restorer. I’m also hoping Pablo Alfaro, who got cut short last meeting, will consider repeating, and expanding his presentation of repair techniques. We’ll have other speakers involved as well, and we’re putting an itinerary together now.

The meeting will begin with our annual business meeting. Importantly, my tenure as President and Board Member will be concluding, and for personal reasons, I am hoping that candidates will step forward to become new board members and let me participate as a regular member in the future. Please let me know if you would like to become a member of the board, or continue as a board member.

We’re also looking at several venues for an evening meal together, and hoping to find a restaurant that offers something new and unusual, since we’re travelling so far, and committing so much time to the meeting, the evening meal should also be a worthwhile event of its own. For lunch, check out “The Blind Pig” http://www.blindpigtavern.com/ index.html

For dinner, we have a couple possibilities, so let me know if you like one better than the other, and we’ll set something up. www.fiveandten.com is 4.4 stars, a little pricey but highly rated.     www.trappezepub.com 4.8 stars, beer, barbeque, fish &and finally, http://lastresortgrill.com/menu_dinner.html The Last Resort Grill, menu and prices right. If you know of something even better, and unique, let me know. I’m hoping we can get a banquet room or area so all of us can spend more time together. I’ll let you know of accommodations over the next month or so, or if you find something nice, convenient, and reasonable, let me know.

Got any other ideas, let me know.

General Membership Meeting

I’m pleased to announce that our 4th Annual Meeting was a great success. We planned for 25-30 attendees, and ended up with standing room only. Although some left a bit early, and a few came a bit late, we had a total of 37 participants.

First off, I’d like to thank Beau Vinci Violins for being such wonderful hosts, giving us the entire building (less one office) to hold our meeting. The venue was perfect in every regard.

The meeting kicked off with a quick business meeting, and here are some of the highlights

• Interest in a traveling “American Made Violins” show was cool, we’ll discuss it again next year.
  

• Strong interest in a “makers competition” for 2017 (so as not to compete with the VSA competition in 2016). This gives us 2 years to prepare.
  

• Very strong interest in holding our next meeting in a larger venue, and going for 2 days in order for folks to spend more time together, and not have to hurry through our presentations. We have reserved a large hall at the University of Georgia at Athens, about a hour east of Atlanta for our 2016 meeting, and we’ll have the building pretty much to ourselves, with lots of “spill over” space.
  

• Next meeting will require electing several directors, so if interested start thinking about it, and let me know if you want to be part of “the team” well before next April.
  

Following the business meeting, we had an All-Star lineup of presenters. Jerry Pasewicz did a wonderful presentation on sound post tuning, and gave out some “trade secret” information for those that attended, that included seasonal adjustments and other tips. After a too brief lunch break, Joe Thrift gave us a very detailed presentation on how he antiques violins. Then Christopher Germain gave us varnishing techniques that took us up almost to our scheduled finish time. But, Pablo Alfaro was still able to do his presentation on Repair Tips, concise, but quick, something we hope he’ll consider presenting again next year, but we’ll give him more time for. Thanks you Jerry and Christopher for taking the time to critique violins brought in by various members.

I’d like to apologize for shortcomings in the schedule, including the too-short lunch break. We’ll also look for some venue more unique for an evening dinner location too.

Dear Violin-family Instrument Makers:

The Southern Violin Association is pulling out all the stops to bring you a quality series of presentations on Saturday April 11.   This is a great opportunity for novice makers to network with more experienced makers, and retailers. Its also an opportunity for more successful makers to encourage and mentor those with less experience. There should be something here for everybody, and at every level - and the event's success is only limited by your participation.  Here’s the program at this point:

• Presentations by nationally-recognized luthiers on the following subjects:
  

  • Sound-Post Dynamics (and other setup issues) with Jerry Pasewicz.
    

  • Arching and its impact on sound production with Chris Germain.
    

  • Antiquing techniques and considerations with Joe Thrift.
    

  • Other topics still being developed
    

  • About Consignments presented by Emily Dixon of Beau Vinci Violins)
    

• Instrument Critiques
  

  • Bring your instruments and advanced professional makers will sit down with you and discuss your strengths and weaknesses. Bring Fiddles! And you advanced makers -- here’s an opportunity to share your experience.
    

• Networking -- “Makers Meet Markets”
  

  • Got a problem with a growing violin or bow collection? -- We are inviting retailers from throughout the Southeast to come in the late afternoon for a WINE AND CHEESE EVENT along with an opportunity for makers and shop owners to get together and evaluate your instruments that could result in opportunities for consignments. Let me know if you’re going to participate in this event so we have some idea of how much space and time we will need to set up for this event.
    

• Copies of presentations will be provided in a notebook format at the door so you can add your own notes, and take this with you.

General Membership Meeting

The general membership meeting was held at Huthmaker’s Violins, Duluth, Georgia on Sunday May 25. Two new directors were added to replace previous board members. Outgoing board members were Derek Smith, Jonathan Simon and Jim Clinton and incoming board members are Bill Mason and Pablo Alfaro.

The board of directors members and terms are as follows

David Chandler, President 2012-2016

Dustin Williams, Treasurer 2012-2016

Russell Hopper 2012-2016

David Wascher 2012-2016

Bill Mason 2014-2018

Pablo Alfaro 2014-2018

The next annual meeting will be April 12, 2015. Right now we aren’t sure if it will be at Huthmakers or not, until we’ve seen their new facility, but in any case we’ll make sure the word gets out where the meeting will be. They’ve been very gracious in hosting our annual meetings three straight years now, and the board wishes them all the best in their new digs.

After the business meeting, we adjourned to a pizza restaurant across the street. After reconvening back at Huthmakers, William Mason of Mason Violins in Fredericksburg, Virginia presented a slide show that captured the growth of their business that began working out of their home, to a full size shop, and all the issues that came up along the way. Then David Chandler gave a presentation on the issues that have faced the Appalachian Red Spruce over the past century, and discussed where and how to collect ARS today. A copy of Dave Chandler’s presentation in hard copy can be obtained by emailing me at david@ccvn.com but you must be a current member to receive a copy.

SUNDAY MAY 25, 2014

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING. Huthmaker’s Violins, Duluth, Georgia

10AM – 3140 Main St, Duluth, GA, Sunday May 25.

• BUSINESS MEETING - ELECTION OF DIRECTORS – We are now two years old, and all new directors need to be elected in accordance with the by-laws. Let me know if interested david@ccvn.com
  

• “FIRST GENERATION VIOLIN SHOP” – a presentation by owner, William Mason, of Mason Violins in Fredericksburg, Virginia
  

• “APPALACHIAN RED SPRUCE” David Chandler will give a presentation on the characteristics of, and how and where he collects Appalachian Red Spruce in the North Carolina Mountains. You’ll learn all you need to go and get your own.
  

• FREE TOP SPRUCE -- A BLOCK OF APPALACHIAN RED SPRUCE, ENOUGH FOR ONE VIOLIN OR VIOLA TOP, grades “A” THROUGH “AAA” GRADE -- FIVE PIECES WILL BE GIVEN FREE BY DRAWING DURING THE MEETING. These pieces were collected from dead and down trees at 5000’ elevation in North Carolina that may have been dead for a decade or more. Stored inside since 2009-2010.
  

• PIZZA LUNCH at a restaurant right across the street. Pizza courtesy the association, but you buy your own drinks.
  

• MAKERS CHOICE COMPETITION -- After lunch. Maximum one of each type instrument per person, any string instrument, from any time period, as long as it hasn’t received any type of award in the past.

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT ANNUAL MEMBER FEES DUE

Here it is 2014 already, and its time to send in your membership fees. Since we are organized as a 501-c-3 non-profit organization, your fees should be tax deductible. Send your checks for $50 made out to SOUTHERN VIOLIN ASSOCIATION, and send them to Dustin Williams, Williams Fine Violins, 1218 17th Ave S., Nashville,TN 37212.

UPCOMING

March 20-April 5 Savannah Music Festival, Savannah Georgia

May 25 General Membership Meeting, followed by Makers Choice competition at Huthmaker Violins, 3140 Main Street, Duluth, Georgia. We’ll be electing board members, so let me know if interested in being more involved. Membership meeting will be followed by a quick board meeting of the directors.

July 11-13 Atlanta Chamber Music Festival, Oglethorpe University.

Mid Year – Visit to Howard Core facility in Anniston Alabama, about an hours drive west of Atlanta.

Oct 26-29, National Association of Music Educators In Service Conference and Exhibit, Nashville. Checking to see if there’s an opportunity for us at this event. Meanwhile let me know if you’d be interested in participating.

Nov 3-8 – Exhibit opportunity at the Music Teacher National Association Competitions at Clayton State University, Morrow, Georgia. We will be purchasing an exhibit space for the association and put some of our instruments on display. If you’re interested in participating in this event, let me know. This is just southeast of Atlanta.

Jan 29-31 2015 GMEA In-Service Conference and Exhibits (Savannah) -- we’ll be purchasing exhibit space, let me know if interested. This will be a pretty big event.

GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING SEPTEMBER 21 AND “MAKERS CHOICE” COMPETITION

You missed to good one!! We had a very productive general member meeting, followed by a pizza outing for lunch, and then we all participated in a “Makers Choice” competition.

GENERAL MEMBER MEETING NOTES

The main thrust of the meeting focused on how we can make the organization relevant to its current members. The consensus was toward creating more events for makers to reach players and retailers on a personal basis. We talked about having an event that would be held in Atlanta area at a hotel or other such venue, and use our contacts with supply houses and local shops to get the word out, plus local advertising. The idea of pursuing grants to help with such an event was brought up. With that in mind, we broke for lunch and our Makers Choice event.

MAKERS’ CHOICE EVENT

This informal event turned out to be a lot of fun. We had nearly a dozen instruments to choose from. Each participant was asked to rate all instruments but their own. We awarded 1st through 3rd place in each - workmanship and tone. Pablo Alfaro played the same classical piece on each instrument for us, and then Russell Hopper gave us a second opportunity with a series of Irish Fiddle tunes. Both were excellent players and gave us a real opportunity to hear these instruments in different styles of play.

Best overall went to Joe Thrift, placing First in Workmanship and Second for Tone, and the highest total points. Another interesting note – Kate Rickenbacker made a last moment decision to attend , bringing her only available instrument - a corner-less violin that received a second place for Workmanship.

COMMENTARY from the President SVA

Greetings makers! This month, I really want to reach out to the novice makers.

I’m sure everyone (including the professional) has experienced the exasperation of having too many fiddles laying about, and not enough money in the bank. When sales are few and far between, one starts to wonder if maybe they shouldn’t be looking in a different direction. Some might get disappointed, and lose interest in the making process altogether.

I know I’ve hit that wall myself, and find myself wondering just what I think I’m doing making fiddles. This is why I really look forward to this upcoming meeting. I hope to see what others are doing, see how my violins compare to other makers, whether novice or professional. Because I am a novice myself, I’m really hoping to see a lot of other novice makers bring a sample of their instruments to this upcoming meeting. In the past two meetings, I’ve come away re-energized, and better equipped to start my next project. It is a never ending process of learning, and one can’t learn in isolation.

My hope is that we’ll have some new folks show up that haven’t attended before, and I really hope we can turn out the novice makers. These are the folks that have the most to gain by attending, and the most to gain by participating in our “makers choice” competition that we’ll have after our general member meeting. We’ll be asking participants to identify themselves as either “professional” or “novice” and I will make sure that the “novice” maker that receives the most votes from among the makers and attendees gets some special recognition. So, if you’re a novice maker, we really want to see you there. I’ll be working with the board on a definition of a “novice” maker, and let everyone know well before the meeting.

Also, I believe participation is more important than generating income at this point. So, there will be no “entry fee” but we still insist that you be a SVA member in good standing. This year, the membership fee is $60. That will also get you into the Howard Core visit Oct 4.

Dave Chandler, President SVA