9 mins
On the beat
During the pandemic, some luthiers have begun making online courses to record their techniques and share their knowledge. Is it a viable alternative to one-to-one teaching?
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Adaptive learning
Iris Carr being filmed for her online course by Evie Troy
LEO CARR
In this era of unprecedented knowledge-sharing among instrument makers, YouTube is one of the most accessible forums for students of the craft. Some luthiers are particularly active on the platform, demonstrating their methods and sharing repair tips. A number of makers, such as Peter Westerlund from Sweden, have created long series of videos documenting their complete process of making an instrument (bit.ly/2UTfbkV). While YouTube is free, makers have also monetised video content, using membership platforms such as Patreon, or by creating standalone, paid-for online courses. Two such courses launched in early 2021: a 12-hour professional-level neck graft course by UK-based restorer Iris Carr, on the platform Teachable (bit.ly/3hkqr0W); and a 37-hour violin making course by Cremona-based maker Lucas Fabro, available from guitar maker Robert O’Brien’s website (bit.ly/3qy7Jas).
Carr, who has taught restoration and retouching workshops in France, Japan, the US and Poland, decided to create an online course when she realised the pandemic would take away her regular teaching opportunities. For Westerlund, who began his YouTube series in April 2020, the timing of the pandemic was incidental; he had reached his 400th instrument and decided he wanted to document his highly individual method, which involves knocking the plates or scratching them with a fingernail and listening to the resultant tones to guide the arching and graduation. He says: ‘I thought, “Why not explain exactly how I do it?” I used to be a maths teacher, so there was also something inside me about wanting to teach other people.’ Fabro had started making YouTube videos mainly for fun, and was not immediately persuaded when O’Brien approached him about doing an online course. ‘I always thought you can’t teach how to make a violin online,’ he says. ‘But when I looked again at my first violin, I became so convinced that I could have done something better if I’d had a very good video, with clear explanations, something I could go back and rewatch.’
Fabro’s course is targeted squarely at beginners, whereas Carr is pitching to professional restorers. ‘The neck graft is a standard procedure, but a complex one with many steps,’ she says. ‘For experienced restorers, there are things in the course that they might not have done before, or done in a different way. And for those with less experience… at least one person has said they did their first neck graft with the course running on a laptop on the bench.’ On Carr’s Teachable site, she has also made available recordings of Zoom lectures on crack repair, bass-bars and retouching, from which the RAB Trust, a charity that supports students at UK violin making schools, receives between 50 and 100 per cent of the revenue.
‘For experienced restorers, there are things in the course that they might not have done before’
Filming an online course demands a considerable time commitment, as Fabro and Carr discovered. ‘When I made the violin for the course, it took me twice the time it would take normally,’ says Fabro. Carr spent 16 days working with a film-maker, and ended up with 68 hours of footage to edit.
To condense a procedure that usually takes around 30 hours into a 12-hour course, she cut out material from some of the more repetitive woodworking processes, such as peg bushings, fingerboard work, and fitting, shaping and planing the neck.
Retouching was the most challenging element to film, she says:
‘When I do retouching, I turn the instrument constantly to see the retouch from all different angles. But to make sure the camera sees everything clearly, you have to hold the instrument still.’
It was important to Fabro that he film every step of the violin making process. ‘I wanted to be completely transparent about the reality of making, and how long it takes,’ he says. ‘But I didn’t go deeply into every detail on some specific aspects which you only discover and understand through making a lot of instruments.’
Carr and Fabro both fielded plenty of questions from course users. Carr was able to respond either privately or in Teachable’s public Comments section. Fabro addressed one question by making a short explanatory video and adding it to the course.
‘Most of the questions were theoretical rather than practical,’ he says, ‘and some came from people who weren’t making their first instrument and wanted to go into more complex issues.’
Westerlund was also happy to answer questions posted by his YouTube audience. ‘I was self-taught,’ he says, ‘and when I was young I went around asking people all sorts of questions. Many people kept their secrets and were not so helpful. I try to be better.’
Online video courses have their limitations, but there are clear benefits for students in terms of price, accessibility, and being able to keep the course as a permanent resource. For the teacher, there is the possibility of reaching a more international audience: Carr included the option of Spanish and Mandarin Chinese as well as English subtitles for her course with this in mind. ‘Adding subtitles increased the costs, but it was worth it to be able to reach a wider audience,’ she says. ‘I would be interested in doing something similar again, but you need to have the right instrument at the right time for such a project.’ Westerlund adds that the process of explaining techniques can deepen a maker’s own understanding: ‘You definitely find new layers in your own thoughts when you start teaching others.’
COURTESY DECCA
OBITUARIES
JEANNE LAMON
Jeanne Lamon, violinist and early music specialist, died on 20 June at the age of 71. She was best known for her long association with the Baroque orchestra Tafelmusik, where she spent 33 years as its music director, from 1981 to 2014, during which time the Canadian group became one of the most celebrated early music ensembles in the world. Lamon remained its chief artistic advisor until 2017.
Born in 1949 in New York, Lamon began studying the violin aged seven. Having gained a bachelors degree in violin from Boston’s Brandeis University, studying with Robert Koff, she moved to the Netherlands to learn with Herman Krebbers of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Her time studying with Sigiswald Kuijken led to her interest in early music, which she pursued on returning to the US. In 1974 she became the first violinist to win the Erwin Bodky Award for excellence in the performance of early music.
Having made two guest appearances with Tafelmusik, which was founded in 1979, Lamon was offered the post of music director in 1981. She relocated to Toronto in the same year. Under her leadership, the orchestra made more than 60 recordings, launched many successful international tours and created innovative programmes such as the 2012 Galileo Project, performing Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Bach and Handel against a backdrop of images from the Hubble Space Telescope. The ensemble received the 1996 Echo Klassik award for orchestra of the year, and won nine Juno Awards from the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Lamon also taught at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto, and received an honorary doctorate from York University in 1994. She was given the Canada Council’s Molson Prize in 1998 for lifelong commitment to the arts; was named musician of the year by the Toronto Musicians’ Association; and was appointed Member of the Order of Canada in 2000.
In later life, Lamon was also artistic director of the Health Arts Society of Ontario, an organisation dedicated to providing concerts to people in retirement homes and long-term care.
ARKADIJ VINOKUROW
Violinist and pedagogue Arkadij Vinokurow has died aged 72. A soloist and chamber musician, he was highly respected in the music circles of Austria, where he performed and taught for almost 30 years.
Born in 1949 in Kiev, Ukraine, Vinokurow began studying the violin at the Kiev Lysenko State Music Lyceum and later the Kiev Conservatory.
In 1971 he gave his first concert as soloist with the National Philharmonic of Ukraine, where he performed many times afterwards. In 1987 he was appointed chief conductor of the Kiev Chamber Orchestra, but in 1992 relocated with his family to Austria where he became closely associated with new Austrian music; he gave the world premieres of works by composers such as Gunter Waldeck, Rudolf Jungwirth, Erland Maria Freudenthaler and Erik Freitag. He also played with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, touring to Switzerland, Turkey and France, and was first violinist of the Arte Viva Quartet.
As a teacher, in 1979 Vinokurow became a visiting professor at Finland’s Tampere Conservatory. On moving to Austria he became a sought-after professor at the Bruckner University in Linz. He gave masterclasses in Japan, Poland, Israel, Finland and Slovakia and sat on the jury at several national and international competitions. In his later years, Vinokurow was awarded Austria’s Cross of Honour for science and art.
VIKTOR SIMON
Viktor Lvovich Simon, long-serving principal cellist of the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, has died. He was 91.
Born in Moscow in 1930, Simon studied at the Moscow Conservatory with tutors including Roman Sapozhnikov and Semyon Kozolupov. In 1961 he took up a position
as soloist, and later principal cellist, of the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio (formerly known as the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra of All-Union Radio). He went on to record more than 70 performances as soloist with the radio orchestra, among them the modern premieres of cello concertos ranging from the Baroque to the 20th century. For more than 30 years he was the director of the orchestra’s cello ensemble.
As a pedagogue, Simon began teaching at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music in 1980. He was made an assistant professor in 1988, and a professor in 1993. In 1996 he joined the cello faculty of the Moscow Conservatory, where he remained until his retirement in 2017.
In 1981 Simon received the title of Honoured Artist from the Russian Federation, and in 1988 he was named People’s Artist. In 1999, as one of the oldest musicians in the Tchaikovsky Orchestra, he was given an honorary award ‘for contribution to culture’. In 2005 he was given the Russian Order of Merit.
LAMON PHOTO SIAN RICHARDS
TAO SONG
Cellist, author and composer Tao Song died on 17 June 2021 in Littleton, MA, US. She was 88.
Born in 1933, Song entered Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music (CCM) in 1952, aged 19, and graduated in 1957.
She went on to complete a two-year masterclass with Vadim Sergeevich Chervov at the Kiev Conservatory in Ukraine. On graduating in 1958 she was employed as a teacher by the CCM and remained there for her entire life.
Professor Song was the editor of the Central Conservatory Handbook for Teaching Cello, Viola and Violin as well as the Central Conservatory Certification Handbook for Cello, and Anthology of Cello.
With the collaboration of her husband Liantao Tian, Professor Song created three compositions for cello and piano: Children of the Red River, Song of Loess Plateau and Capriccio Himalaya. All three of these works have been published by the Central Conservatory of Music Press.
NING TIEN