Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

The Times (UK) Reports Some Rare Violins Are Fake. But You Already Knew That…

Adaptistration People 120

The 12/28/2015 edition of The Times (UK) published an article by Hugo Rifkind that reports a third of rare violins within the $20,000 to $100,000 selling price range are fake. At least, that’s according to violin dealer, Florian Leonhard; but for long time Adaptistration readers, that news is more than a decade old. For those unaware, and this is an absolutely fascinating part of orchestra field history, back in 2004, the …

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Frankfurt Is My Kind Of Town

After 20.5 hours of plane, train, and another train worth of travel I am finally back in Frankfurt for the evening and I wanted to post a quick note to say how charming the city and its people have been during my brief visit.

Science Schmience: Violinists Blast Holes In Violin Experiment

Since the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a paper titled Player preferences among new and old violins which chronicles their experiment during the Violin Competition of Indianapolis from September, 2010 the results have received a good bit of attention. Initial reactions were mostly positive but that ended up being short-lived honeymoon.

Two Items Of Note

First up, on 4/3/2011 the New Jersey Star-Ledger published an extensive article written by Mark Mueller about the unfolding legal troubles which have contributed to violin dealer Dietmar Machold’s fall from grace. Among other items, the report recounts Machold’s involvement with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s (NJSO) Golden (Pyrate?) Age instrument deal that soured mere weeks after being plucked from the vine. Mueller calls it a “recurring bad dream for the …

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More On New Jersey

Following yesterday’s article, there are two dynamic aspects worth consideration resulting from the NJSO’s decision to draw a third of their endowment and sell off some of their instrument collection they purchased from Herbert Axelrod…