French police recover 2 violins stolen from member of Los Angeles Philharmonic

Date Added: April 06, 2008 02:49:41 AM

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A burglar stole the violins on Dec. 23 from the West Hollywood home of violinist Mark Kashper, French police said. One was crafted in the 18th century by the great violinmaker Carlo Tononi, while the other was made in the 19th century by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume. Word of the theft was spread among American and European violin dealers. The owner of a Paris violin shop alerted police when an American man tried to sell them recently for just €50,000 (US$65,000), Paris police said. Police recovered the instruments Thursday.The seller, an American who lives in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, was taken into custody and jailed for possible extradition, police said. The man, whose identity was not immediately released, denied breaking into Kashper's house and said he bought the instruments from someone he did not know.

-International Herald Tribune-

ARTICLES

Strings, standing waves and harmonics
How do we make musical sounds? To make a sound , we need something that vibrates. If we want to make musical notes you usually need the vibration to have an almost constant frequency: that means stable pitch. We also want a frequency that can be easily controlled by the player. In electronic instruments this is done with electric circuits or with clocks and memories. In non-electronic instruments, the stable, controlled vibration is produced by a standing wave.

Articulation and vibrato on the violin
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ASA Summer School 2009
The Australian String Academy - Our upcoming Summer School will be held at the Sydney Conservatorium in January 2009, in the heart of the Sydney Harbour. ASA has invited four stellar international string personalties - Zakhar Bron (Russia) for violin, Nobuko Imai (Switzerland) for viola, Hans Jensen (USA) for cello, and Joel Quarrington (Canada) for bass.

Sergio Peresson

Sergio Peresson
Sergio Peresson (1913-1991) was an Italian-born violin maker who is considered one of the most phenomenal makers of the 20th century. Born in 1913 in Udine, Italy, Sergio made his first violin in 1943 before moving to Caracas, Venezuela, in 1947. There he primarily did repair work for the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra and had a modest production of new instruments. He moved to Philadelphia in 1963 and was employed by William Moennig and Son.