Media Release

For immediate release
January 20, 2005

Banff Centre offers violin and bow repair and restoration workshops

The Banff Centre, in collaboration with The Sound Post Inc. (Toronto), will offer three intensive workshops on violin and bow repair and restoration this summer. The workshops will take place between June 13 and July 1, 2005, at The Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Violin and bow restoration is an ancient craft, the secrets of which are often closely guarded within families or small groups of experts. There are several first-class violin making schools in the world, but very limited time is devoted to repair and restoration. There exists, therefore, a very real shortage of opportunities for craftspersons to learn and enhance their restoration skills. The situation is particularly acute in Canada, which does not have an international-calibre violin making school.

For the second year in a row, these violin and bow repair and restoration workshops will be hosted by The Banff Centre’s Music & Sound program and led by internationally recognized master maker-restorers Horacio Piñeiro and William Salchow of New York. Other faculty include Jonathan Woolston, Cambridge, England; Quentin Playfair, Toronto, Canada; and David Tamblyn, Toronto.

The workshops are aimed at emerging to mid-career professional violin and bow repairers. Program topics will include:

• Workshop 1 (June 13 to June 17): Bow repair and restoration
• Workshop 2 (June 20 to June 24): Violin repair and restoration, including crack repair, and a lecture on 18th century Venetian instruments
• Workshop 3 (June 27 to July 1): Violin repair and restoration, including varnish repair

Program participants will bring their own instruments and bows to work on under the supervision of the faculty. Faculty-participant ratio will be very low; class size will be no more than 20 per seminar. The Banff piano restoration workshops, where the seminars will be held, provide a spacious, well-equipped facility at the heart of The Banff Centre campus.

These workshops occur during the Banff Summer Arts Festival and Jazz at Banff events at The Banff Centre.

For more information or to register, contact The Banff Centre Registrar’s Office at 403-762-6180 or at arts_info@banffcentre.ca.

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More information on the 2005 Violin and Bow Repair and Restoration Workshops.

Print-ready, downloadable images of The Banff Centre.

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