Chicago Sun-Times 1992
Report Brown (right), a repairman with Carl Becker an answers questions from violin admirers during Sunday’s e of new instruments at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Old not always better, maker say
By Minette McGhee
Nine-year-old Jeremy Sharp tried out a Bach suite on an out-sized – for him – cello made by Carl Becker and Son Violin Makers, Restorers and Experts.
“It’s OK, but being two sizes too big, I have a lot to stretch,” he explained as he extended his fingers. “That varnish certainly beats the veneer on mine. It doesn’t buzz, it doesn’t sound like plywood.”
Sharp, who’s been playing for 5 1/2 years, had heard about Becker instruments and jumped at the chance to check them out Sunday at an exhibition of new instruments at the Chicago Cultural Center.
“This is a sneaky way to get him to practice,” said his mother, Elaine Bennett sharp, who brought her son from Downstate Bushnell to play at a Flossmoor fine arts festival Saturday.
The Sunday exhibition attracted about 100 local musicians, students, instructors and enthusiasts, who played everything from scales to Beethoven on violins, violas and cellos. They brought a classical sound and feel to the third-floor exhibition hall.
The American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers sponsored the exhibitions, which included 43 instrument and bow makers, including four from the Chicago area, to stress that when it comes to violin, older is not always better.
“A good new violin is a lot better than a bad old violin,” said the federation’s president, Boyd Poulsen.
Advantages include lower cost, durability and greater reliability, he said. Prices of violins at the exhibition ranged from $5000 to $25,000; the bows cost an average of $2000, he said.
“American violinmaking has grown so much in the last 20 years. A lot of us are trained in repair and restoration of fine instrument, and by studying the old master instruments, we got to learn all about the techniques and the little secrets of the ancient masters of the 17th and 18th centuries,” said member Charles Rufino.
“The old instruments are getting so expensive,” said Paul Becker of Chicago-based Carl Becker and Son.
“Students who think older is better come with what they think is a lot of money and they find it’s four times more than they have,” he said. “So they pick up an instrument that’s old just because it has the name. We are trying to end that myth.”
Becker’s new violins cost $18,000; its cellos are about double that. Becker spends about two years crafting them. Old violins can cost as much as hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars.
“If you get a violin that’s $100,000 or $1 million, you’re not going to want to take it out on the road,” Poulsen said.