Thanks to Bob and Rob Murphy of Murphys Music, Melvile, NY, for hosting biographer Quincy Whitney and her new book American Luthier: Carleen Hutchins–the Art and Science of the Violin. No author could ask for a more gracious, knowledgeable or enthusiastic audience! Kudos and many thanks!...
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Luthier Bob Murphy, of Murphys Music, Melville, NY, demonstrates a technique he uses to make a mediocre factory violin better–a method that pioneering female luthier Carleen described as “ditching” which involves carving the free violin plate around the edges to make it more flexible. “The difference is night and day!” Bob exclaimed. Murphys Music on Walt Whitman Road in Melville consistently uses innovative techniques to improve instruments and enhance strong connections to the community. They enthusiastically hosted a short book talk last Wednesday afternoon featuring Quincy Whitney and her new biography American Luthier: Carleen Hutchins–the Art and Science of ...
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This wonderful message painted on the wall of M & C, Amherst, NH—It reminds me of the importance of a sunny personality like Greg at M & C, who takes the time to recognize folks and even recall their stories. Recalling and sharing stories is what it’s all about! A few days ago, two special people showed up to a book event at Toadstool Peterborough. A woodworker named Wayne took time away from this workshop to come to Toadstool Bookshop because though he has lived by his hands and working wood, he has always admired the intricacies of carving a ...
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A dark and rainy Friday night still did not deter a small audience who came to Porter Square Books to hear about American Luthier. A great surprise to see two old friends who first came to the early meetings of the Boston Biography Group—Mary-Lou Breitborde and Louise Swiniarski—who had come just to root on a fellow biographer who had finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel! Mary-Lou, Associate Dean of Education at Salem State, and Louise, professor emeritus at Salem State co-authored Teaching on Principle and Promise, The Foundations of Education. Mary-Lou is working on the ...
Read MoreA perfect book signing? I did not think they existed! But tonight at Water Street books is about as perfect as I have found so far! It was not just the “packed house” of 20 -25, or the enthusiasm of an engaged audience filled with fiddle students of fiddler Ellen Carlson. It was not the fact that Ellen played fiddle for us on her Hutchins Mezzo after she explained how Carleen had inspired her in her own life to follow her bliss. It was not just that we actually moved some books! The night was perfect for all these reasons! ...
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What a spectacular event happened last Friday night at the Nashua Country Club—literary and musical, harkening back a century when the original mission of the club, now celebrating its 100th anniversary, was to offer recreation and sport, and community events including literary ones! Fiddler Ellen Carlson and Tom Whitehead, at piano and guitar, performed bluegrass and swing tunes—fiddle, guitar, piano and vocals! The audience of fifty or so thoroughly enjoyed the Carleen Hutchins story—a true story of a most unlikely violinmaker—and the music was a true delight! Thanks to David Scaer, NCC General Manager, for believing in the cultural mission ...
Read MoreYeah, Gibson’s Bookstore!!!!! A rainy night, mud by the front door–in the longest-running re-construction of a Main Street ever witnessed–and still a warm, receptive and enthusiastic audience!—two musical moms praising celebrated Concord Community Music School and their family of string players; a couple with a very long memory who came to hear the story behind the 2011 concert featuring the Hutchins Consort at St. Paul’s School; others less talkative but still engaged by the remarkable, and unlikely tale of Carleen Hutchins. A night at Gibson’s proved that community is both vitally real, and virtual at the same time! It is ...
Read MoreAt Home at the Metropolitan Museum of Art—a Hutchins Violin Octet and One Lucky Research Fellow In late 1988, Carleen Hutchins donated a Violin Octet to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to honor the 100th Anniversary of the Crosby Brown Musical Instruments Collection. The first exhibition of the Hutchins Violin Octet went on display in the spring of 1989, running March through July of that year. A decade later, in October, 1999, a change in administration of the galleries brought the Hutchins Violin Octet out from the catacombs again—when museum curators asked Hutchins to return to the museum to examine ...
Read MoreAn attentive, insightful and enthusiastic audience of 50 or so came to the Newburyport Public Library on Saturday April 30 to hear a late afternoon lecture about violinmaker Carleen Hutchins. The slide presents a photo of the Hutchins Consort, of San Diego, CA, in 2000, the year it was founded by bassist Joe McNalley (far right) who first heard the contrabass as a college student when Hutchins came to the University of California-San Diego to give a lecture-demontration....
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