Tell us about the scordatura – what will it sound like?

It’s an unusual sound, quite intense, edgy and unworldly. The scordatura is in the second movement of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and I need to quickly change to a second violin that Hugh has tuned to the required pitch. The sound I believe Mahler wanted to create here was something ghostly, like a dance macabre. His wife Alma wrote that she believed in this particular movement that Mahler was under the spell of the self-portrait by Arnold Bröcklin in which Death fiddles into the painter’s ear while the artist sits entranced.

How does the tuning impact the instrument?

A violin isn’t used to being tuned a tone above – it means the strings are even tighter so you really need somebody who knows what the chances are of the E string breaking, for example. The instrument is highly strung as it is.

Thankfully since I moved from Sydney to Canberra a couple of years ago I’ve developed a wonderful relationship with Hugh. We are lucky to have a luthier of his calibre in Canberra. He’s done excellent work on my violin in the past as well as repairs and refurbishments. Every so often an old crack will open slightly and I take it to Hugh to work his magic on. The various changing temperatures along with humidity levels really do affect string instruments. Hugh also makes beautiful instruments and one of my students who travels to me for lessons from Jugiong owns one of his gorgeous violins.

Have you played a scordatura before?

I have, in this symphony in fact. The scordatura will be challenging in terms of pitch but not too daunting. It’s a fascinating sound. A bit more raw and ghostly. The tuning definitely changes the timbre, which is no doubt why Mahler chooses it here.

Where did you buy your own violin?

In my twenties I played in the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, a world-renowned chamber orchestra in London, and there was a fantastic instrument dealer there who contacted me and said, ‘I have a violin I really think you’ll like’. He was right, I absolutely love it! I came across my bow quite by chance when I was in Switzerland for concerts as soloist with the Neuchâtel Chamber Orchestra and Bern Symphony Orchestra. The quality of a bow matters just as much as the instrument and both are a huge investment both artistically and financially.

Would you ever let anybody else play it?

Of course. Most musicians, including myself, want instruments to be played, not sitting in museums. They get better with age and the more you play them. I was fortunate to have a beautiful Italian violin loaned to me when I played with the Sydney Symphony and I in turn loaned mine to the very talented young violinist Emily Su to borrow when she was studying in Melbourne. Emily incidentally will be sitting next to me for this program so it will be a reunion for them both. She’ll also be tasked with helping me swap violins quickly for the solos.

How did you get into this line of work?

I always liked making things, and music. I did an arts and science degree at university and later was recruited into the Department of Primary Industries and Energy to help develop climate change policy – back in the early days around 1992-93. After a while I realised I really needed to do a bit more ‘making’. I still had a love of music and wanting to craft instruments was what inspired me to go overseas and get some training.

In Australia at the time the only pathway would have been getting work in a very large retail strings business, of which there weren’t many in mid 90s, and it really was only a partial training – enabling you to set up lots of student instruments as fast as possible.

So I went to England and trained at the Newark International Violin School near Nottingham then worked for two years in London. I came back in 2003 and set up my first workshop in Canberra.

What does a luthier actually do?

A luthier has a full understanding of how to make instruments from scratch and also how to ethically repair them. That doesn’t always mean the cheapest way, but the best and most sensitive way to retain and respect as much of the original intent of the maker while making it functionally as good as it can be.

I work out of a studio at Gorman House in Braddon and am on my own now, where previously I had two or three others working with and for me. I decided this year to focus on the making of instruments. I do still service and repair some higher-end instruments, such as violins like Kirsten’s, but I’m mostly focusing on the making side of the business.

Are newly made instruments as good as old ones?

Modern-made instruments are as good as they’ve ever been. I think a lot of the appeal of older instruments is that people don’t want to be the first person in the story of an instrument. The allure of an older instrument is it has already been played by countless musicians in the past. The owner can form a direct connection. The Mahler piece the CSO will perform was created at the turn of 19^th -20^th centuries. If a musician is playing an instrument made in that era there could be a sense of ‘maybe this instrument has played this piece before, at the time it was made.’ They could feel it’s a more authentic experience.

What is the oldest instrument you’ve worked on?

In the beginning of my career in London I saw some of the first examples of this family of instruments, dating from the 1550s. The oldest instrument I’ve worked on dates from the early 1600s.

Do you get stressed working on incredibly old instruments?

Like artworks, instruments can have a fair bit of provenance. And there is a responsibility in working with them. In some ways you’ve got to view it more like how surgeons view cutting into people. At a certain point you accept that the object is there and you have the skills to work on it. It’s a self-knowledge thing. Some people don’t know they don’t have the skills and that’s when bad accidents can happen and when unfortunate work is done.

You just need to do the job at hand as best you can. In some ways it is more intimidating to work on an instrument you know is really, really expensive. If you make mistakes you not only have to fix them but you potentially damage the value of the instrument.

What is the most expensive instrument you’ve worked on?

In London in the early 2000s I was working on an instrument valued at 25 million pounds sterling. At that level it’s more of that crossover between art and function. It’s about who made it, when and what condition it’s in. That instrument was a Stradivarian cello. Stradivari didn’t make many cellos.

The pressure you put yourself under is knowing the musician cares for the instrument deeply. They know how to make it work but maybe not how it works. Some form a real love for their instruments. Some have a love hate relationship with it. But most are very protective over what is done to it for fear that some almost magical quality of that particular instrument may change.

When did you meet Kirsten?

When she first moved to Canberra at the end of 2022-23. Her personal instrument was in quite pressing need of restoration. Restoration differs from repair. Repairs are short-term immediate fixes where there is some damage. A restoration is more like a knockdown rebuild of a house. You get in the architect and think about what you can do rather than slapping another coat of paint on it. I had Kirsten’s violin for 3-4 months for restoration work. She says she likes it! That is the challenge of the professional musician playing an instrument so much – it is just a thing made of wood, yet it’s played outside, inside, and subjected to different temperatures. Canberra is fairly brutal on instruments – it gets really dry and when things get dry wood shrinks and things start to pop open.

What violin will you be loaning Kirsten for the Mahler concert?

I have two instruments in mind and am debating whether it should be one or the other. I will give her the choice to achieve the sound she’s looking for.

Both are personal models. Many people make instruments that are copies of those made in past, which is good as they get to hang their hook on the branding of others who’ve gone before and it also provides a shorthand for describing the style of sound you’d expect.

The Guarneri family from Italy in the early to mid 1700s made instruments with a darker, growlier sound that was quite loud. Stradivari made instruments with a brighter, clearer, more bell-like sound. My instruments are more toward the louder, darker sound while still trying to have that smoother bell-like middle and core to them. I’ve tried to take the good bits I’ve learnt about over the years to create what is my personal style of instrument making.

Can you fix or build all instruments?

No. I concentrate on violins, violas and cellos. Nothing with plucked strings, like guitars or lutes. I also pass bows onto people with more experience as they need different tools and skills. You really need to specialise in this business and my speciality is the bowed string instruments of the violin family.

Do you prefer old or new instruments?

Good instruments are always good instruments with the right repair and maintenance. Age just adds a little bit to the price tag! But age also adds to the amount of care needed to keep the instrument in tip-top condition. Old, fragile instruments often carry damage from the past that can be repaired, but at a cost.

How long does it take to make a violin?

About 3-4 weeks for woodworking and about the same over a longer period to do the varnishing and setting up. I don’t have a huge production every year but try to get at least two going in tandem. Cellos take twice as long and violas are somewhere in the middle.

Do you play an instrument?

I’m a cellist but I rely on test drivers to put the instruments through their paces. I’m like the racing car builder and creator – I don’t make the fastest lap times but know how to get them to do that. I don’t personally have the time and skill to be able to bring everything out of an instrument.

Are there many others doing what you’re doing in Canberra?

I’m the last person standing to a certain extent. Australians tend to suffer a bit of cultural cringe and can’t conceive that there could be any good people in Australia and so they send a lot of work overseas.