Violin Making School of America

Preparing for the VMSA Tone Class requires years of determined work before a student can present their results to the entire school. It is a notable achievement for a student to make it to this point on the path to graduation. We congratulate McKenzie Zenger for presenting her compelling collection of nicely made student instruments for everyone at VMSA to hear and see!

McKenzie’s collection demonstrates an outstanding start on her first two 1709 “Viotti” Stradivarius models. McKenzie’s first two violins were so impressive, in fact, that our now Director Emeritus, Charles Woolf, determined upon their completion that McKenzie had also already satisfied the requirements for her third school violin as well. A truly rare and remarkable achievement!

For her final school violin McKenzie chose the 1690 “Tuscan” Stradivarius, rendering it true to the original’s arch heights of over 17mm for the top and 16mm for the back. McKenzie’s close study of the “Tuscan” shows in her careful detailing, and her tonal results were by far the audience favorite! We do intend to see each student continue to improve with every instrument they make at school, and even starting from a high bar McKenzie certainly did! The “Tuscan” will be McKenzie’s graduation model, and we look forward to her forthcoming graduation results!

For her Viola model McKenzie chose the 1625 “Estense” Amati, one of the earliest historical examples of contralto Viola design which has become a bit of a VMSA favorite student Viola model recently. McKenzie’s work only further added to our interest in this important historical instrument, and her careful rendering produced a wonderfully sounding Viola!

For her Cello, McKenzie made a compelling Forma-B Stradivarius model. Like many of the original Stradivarius Celli, McKenzie’s Cello wood had some unique features that made carving an extra challenge for a first time Cello Maker. McKenzie’s determination paid off, producing a well made and fantasticlly sounding first Cello!

Congratulations, McKenzie, for keeping the VMSA Tone Class standards high! Well done! We look forward to seeing your graduation work!

Congratulations to our most recent Cum Laude graduate, Tom Bush! In addition to earning high scores on the VMSA graduation requirements, Tom also made VMSA history as the first student in our school’s 53 years to complete a “decorated” Stradivarius model for his graduation instruments. Tom choose the 1687 “Ole Bull” Stradivarius, complete with the extensive ornamental inlay work of the original. As part of his graduation day proceedings, Tom gave an informative and well researched class on the history and techniques of the decorated Strads. We are very impressed by Tom’s ambition to take on such a substantial graduation project, and even more impressed by the carefully detailed results Tom achieved at the workbench. Bravo, Tom!

Tone Class is a significant milestone for VMSA students on the path to graduating. After all of the hard work required to complete a student made collection, this educational experience provides an important opportunity for everyone at VMSA to hear each instrument and evaluate the tonal results. We are excited to congratulate our student, Tom Bush, for reaching this major step on the path towards graduating!

Tom presented an impressive range of models including the 1709 “Viotti” Stradivarius Violin, 1735 “Plowden” Guarneri del Gesu Violin, 1625 “Estense” Girolamo Amati Viola, “Forma B” Stradivarius Cello, and most spectacularly the 1687 “Ole Bull” decorated Stradivarius Violin. Taking on the extra ambition of making a decorated Stradivarius is a substantial effort above and beyond the standard requirements, and we applaud Tom’s ambition and the results of his first effort at making a decorated Violin!

We congratulate Tom on presenting a compelling Tone Class! Our students gained a better understanding of tone with this opportunity to hear the results of Tom’s student work, and they move forward inspired to present their own results when their work is ready. Congratulations on a great Tone Class, Tom!

We would like to welcome our new first year students to VMSA! They bring a broad array of previous experience, each of them having their own unique starting point to begin learning violin making. Some of them are already experienced musicians, some are not. Some of them already have experience with woodworking and hand tools, some do not. At VMSA, we provide individualized instruction to meet each student where they are and move forward from there towards careers in violin making. We see our new students’ excitement to learn, and applaud their great starts to their journeys ahead!

Congratulations to our most recent Cum Laude Graduate, Jonas Refsgaard! For his graduation model, Jonas chose the “Boissier-Sarasate” Antonio Stradivarius of 1713 which he rendered to high graduation standards in both his white and varnished work. To begin the graduation ceremony, Jonas gave an informative presentation on his graduation essay about the low-frequency modes and how a violinmaker could make intentional decisions regarding the B-1 mode of the fingerboard to affect the relationship between an instrument’s B0 and A0 modes. Already a trained professional physicist prior to entering VMSA, we look forward to more work from Jonas on subjects related to the violin’s acoustics as his career continues to advance. We are sure that Jonas has a lot to offer in his future as a violinmaker, and we look forward to all that Jonas will do next! Congratulations, !