Music from Maple
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As the students concentrate on their projects, Roy circulates through the room, observing how the work is coming along and offering comments or suggestions in a pleasant German accent. Most of the instruction in this class is one-on-one, with Roy or his teaching assistant, Thurmond Knight, stepping in to assist when a student has a question, needs advice or is ready to advance to a new step in the construction process. Every now and then, Roy calls the class together to demonstrate a technique that will enable them to work more smoothly, or to discuss a problem someone has encountered.

"I'm impressed by how knowledgeable Karl is," Robinson says. "I especially like his familiarity with the history of violin making. He tells you not only how things are done, but why they came to be done that way in the first place."

Roy is an international authority on stringed instruments. For 20 years, from 1970 to 1990, he directed the Bavarian State School of Violin Making in Mittenwald, Germany, and he is still a member of the faculty there. He first introduced a violin-repair workshop at UNH in 1974. Originally, the idea was to enable music students and teachers to learn how to take care of their instruments. But it quickly became apparent that many people wanted more advanced instruction, so Roy began expanding the curriculum with the help of other instructors from the Mittenwald school.

In Europe, only a master violin maker can operate a shop where instruments are built and repaired. To become a master requires three years of work as an apprentice, passing a state exam, working five more years as a journeyman, and then passing another exam. The U.S. has no comparable apprenticeship sytem and only two schools of violin making. "And they charge a lot," Roy observes.

The UNH institute provides an alternative for students from all over the world. "I have primarily now professionals in my classes -- people who are already in the business of making or repairing instruments -- or people who want to become professionals," Roy says. Some students have come to the violin institute, discovered a vocation and moved to Europe to become apprentices, Roy notes.

Right now, Jim Robinson isn't planning to go that far, but for the next few weeks, he'll be thinking of little besides violins. "I come into the shop in the morning at 7, go to dinner at 5:30, come back at 6 and stay until 9," he says. And he has already decided to spend next summer the same way. "I asked if I could sign up early, but they told me they aren't ready to start registration for next summer. I guess I can wait."

-- Jake Chapline

For more information on future workshops, visit the DCE Web site.

See also:
Violin Institute faculty members

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