The Chicago School of Violin Making celebrated the graduations of five students in 2006.

Kate Rickenbacker and Noah Scott graduated in April. The guest speaker for the event was the well-known Irish fiddler, Liz Carroll. Ms. Carroll spoke about her experiences and performed several pieces for the graduates and guests.

December graduates included Fumitaka Ishida, Sonja St. John, and Woo Jin Yeo. Rachel Barton Pine was the guest speaker. She spoke to the graduates about her belief that whenever a musician is complimented on his or her performance, part of that recognition goes to the maker of the instrument, also. She performed on instruments made by each of the graduates and offered comments on the sound of each. She also joined the School Ensemble's performance of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Second Movement and Invitation To The Dance, by C. M. von Weber under the direction of Daria Horodyskyj, Music Director.

In November, Rachel Barton Pine and her husband Greg visited the School. Rachel has agreed to join the Chicago School of Violin Making, Inc. Board of Directors.

Rebecca Elliott, Instructor and Co-Director, attended the violin making workshop in Oberlin in July. Grads Jessie Gilbert and Jongnam Park attended the bow rehairing workshop and grads Susan Hammerman and Jerry Witkowski attended the set-up workshop.

Tschu Ho Lee was a Workmanship judge for the International Competition at the Violin Society of America Convention in Baltimore in November 2006. He has also been invited to be a violin making judge at the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow in June 2007.

Co-Director Fred Thompson, Jim Zartman, CSVM Board President, and several other board members attended the VSA convention in November 2006. A number of students, including Holly Austin and Yumi Fujimoto attended as well.

David Bromberg, a 1984 CSVM graduate, appeared for two shows at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago in January. His new album of vocal and guitar music, "Try Me One More Time" was released in January.

Varnish Maker Joe Robson presented a 2-day seminar on varnish making for students at the school in February. The program included basic varnish making, raw materials and a Q & A period, as well as "cooking" a batch of varnish outside in zero-degree weather. A third day included a presentation for area violin makers and students together. Our thanks to Joe for an interesting and informing presentation.

If graduates have news to share, let us know and we will add it to our News Page. We plan to update as often as we have news to report!