The secret of how a simple chunk of wood can be carved into an instrument that evokes what many music lovers consider the most emotive of sounds endures as one of life's great mysteries.

One day, mid-summer, I stopped by Benning Violins in Studio City for repairs on a friend’s cello. German-born Hans Benning was at his work station, a violin on his bench and a wood plane in his ...

SKOKIE, Ill. — Beneath the warm light of an arm lamp, Ron Mielzynski runs his fingers over an unvarnished violin belly. “See that?” he says, pointing to something invisible to the untrained eye.

Master violin-maker Will Bartruff teaches his craft to 13-year-old Ben Milne. Then Ben came along – followed by two teens a little older than Ben.

A s department head of violin making and repair at North Bennet Street School for traditional crafts and trades, Roman Barnas likens his teaching to training athletes, “because the body position ...

John Jordan’s garage is overflowing with the bodies of unfinished violins. Some look like tapered chunks of maple or redwood. Others are closer to completion: sticklike necks with one swooping curve ...

In a small, sun-drenched studio outside of Boston, Benoit Rolland runs his hand over thin, dark planks of wood. He taps them to demonstrate how the percussive sound of each species varies.

James Brown works in his shop making a violin in Claremont, CA on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. Brown taps the piece to test for tonal quality. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG) ...

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — During World War II, within the walls of the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, a Jewish prisoner secretly penned a short note and hid it inside a violin he had crafted ...

It is unknown how the violin left Dachau and ultimately made its way to Hungary. But Kempa, according to documents provided to the Hungarian art dealers by the museum at the Dachau memorial site ...