I second the request of Brendon Mezzetti (Soundpost, August) for an article on vegan violin playing. As a violinist and animal rights advocate, I am constantly struggling to find the balance between doing what I most love (playing the violin) and following my personal ethical principles. Society is already making a shift away from using animal products, which are both unsustainable and exploitative of non-human species. I have now made the switch to using vegan bow hair by Coruss (above) and I find that I actually prefer the sound to traditional horse hair! If there were a way to encourage luthiers to develop a vegan glue, I would be thrilled to promote it. Can The Strad connect a community of vegan string players to provide funding for such an initiative?
AUDREY MORSE New York City, NY, US