Viola Jokes Competition March is Viola Month at Givens Violins, and we are celebrating all things Viola…including the jokes! We set up a giveaway to give our audience a chance to show off their favorite viola jokes, after making sure the violists would definitely not be offended! To commemorate all the fun we’ve had, we’re […]

What Did They Play? By Isabel Dammann PART II: Fritz Kreisler (b. 1875 – d. 1962) and his Violins Kreisler’s acquisition of fine violins was far from over. In 1911, Kreisler purchased another violin from Alfred Hill: a c.1715 violin by Daniel Parker, who was one of the first makers to copy Stradivarius. It was such […]

What Did They Play? by Isabel Dammann PART I: Fritz Kreisler (b. 1875 – d. 1962) and his Violins “The violinist should not be accused of inconstancy; he must follow the call of a siren voice – the voice of the magic piece of wood that dominates his destiny. It is the voice of an […]

String Theory: Historical Facts About Your Violin Strings As musicians, we are constantly in search for information regarding the music we play and our instruments. Many of us are aware that violin strings were once made out of gut, but perhaps you didn’t realize that gut was the standard material used until after World War […]

We hear from many people who believe they have found a Stradivarius violin because it bears a label stating this. Please read the following excerpt from the Smithsonian Institution gain insight as to what you may have. “Antonio Stradivari was born in 1644, and established his shop in Cremona, Italy, where he remained active until […]