Gareth Ballard Violin 2024
poa
Beautiful Guarneri model violin, with a golden brown varnish, two piece back, set up by the maker with Evah Pirazzi Gold strings and boxwood fittings. Warm and sonorous with an even tone all the way up the fingerboard and all the way across.
|
|
|
measurements
LOB: 352mm
Upper Bout: 165mm
Middle Bout: 113mm
Lower Bout: 204mm
String Length: 325mm
Upper Bout: 165mm
Middle Bout: 113mm
Lower Bout: 204mm
String Length: 325mm
Gareth's love of violin making is very much a marriage of the arts and sciences. He developed a keen interest in acoustics, in his early teens, as he became very active making music. For the first 14 years of his working life he was a professional performing musician and composer. In 2000 he gained a BA Honours Degree in Music specialising in composition which took him as far as Vologda in Russia, where he had a piece performed by the Vologda University Choir and the Hildesheim University Orchestra and Choir. During this time his passion for the violin grew to the point where he felt he had to become an actual violinmaker.
In 2002 he went to Italy to search for a maker to get him started, and was lucky enough to find one in Jesi; Giuseppe Quagliano. Returning to England in 2004 he started a 3 year Diploma at the celebrated Newark School of Violin Making.
Since his graduation he has divided his time equally between repair/restoration and making new instruments, gaining experience in Austria and France before returning to England. After 3 years working in the workshop of Bridgewood and Neitzert in Stoke Newington (North London) he decided to set up his own workshop in Central London where he is today.
In 2015 he was commissioned to oversee a project to build a violin using a 3D printer which has been released in 27 languages.
What distinguishes his violinmaking from other makers is how he uses the computer to perfect the arching and remain more faithful to the instrument he might be copying.
In 2002 he went to Italy to search for a maker to get him started, and was lucky enough to find one in Jesi; Giuseppe Quagliano. Returning to England in 2004 he started a 3 year Diploma at the celebrated Newark School of Violin Making.
Since his graduation he has divided his time equally between repair/restoration and making new instruments, gaining experience in Austria and France before returning to England. After 3 years working in the workshop of Bridgewood and Neitzert in Stoke Newington (North London) he decided to set up his own workshop in Central London where he is today.
In 2015 he was commissioned to oversee a project to build a violin using a 3D printer which has been released in 27 languages.
What distinguishes his violinmaking from other makers is how he uses the computer to perfect the arching and remain more faithful to the instrument he might be copying.