New Italian violas and bows in London

Over the last 12 years of having a central London shop, I have done a number of exhibitions with the Italian makers of Cremona, known as “Consorzio Stradivari”. Within this group are around 75 makers living and working in and around the birthplace of the great Antonio Stradivari. Usually we had 20 violas, 20 violins and 10 cellos….but this year I decided it would be a viola only affair! I also decided to invite 20 Italian makers I knew to also join in and make me an instrument. And so on the 1st November we had 45 brand new Italian viola in the shop!

Along side this I also have contact with most of the World’s finest bow makers so we had 30 bow makers involved, with 40 bows on show!

After a fun opening night party, with the great violist Maxim Rysanov playing a number of the violas, we settled into 3 weeks of violists trying violas and bows. The exhibition was a great success with many violas & bows sold….I also purchased 10 violas for the shop and bought all the bows that I didn’t already own myself. So now I have without doubt the largest range of violas and bows in Europe. That’s what happens when a violist becomes a dealer!