The Detroit News, November, 2000

            Ann Arbor- Thomas Flakoll, a retired Wall Street CEO and amateur violinist, spent fives months traversing the country looking for a violin with the ideal sound and wound up at Alf Studios in Ann Arbor. "I must have looked at 30 different violins, half of which were 100- to 200-year-old violins, and settled on a contemporary one from Alf Studios" said Falkoff, of Washington Crossing, Pa. Gregg T. Alf, owner of Alf Studios, sells 10 violins a year at $15,000 to $25,000 each. He's one of a hundred or so people across the nation selling high-end custom instruments in the tradition of Italy's Stradivarius and Guarneri del Gesu. "When I was a kid I found a violin labeled Stradivari in my grandfather's barn," Alf said. The instrument was only a replica of the great master from Cremona, but it set Alf on a lifelong quest. At age 19 he moved to Italy to begin an eight-year-residency at the International Violinmaker School of Cremona. He and a colleague, Joseph Curtin, founded a studio in 1984 and in 1997, Curtin and Alf branched off on their own.

Alf now travels worldwide looking for ideal wood, finding some of the best spruces in Slovakia and Romania. He finds violin factories to underwrite his trips by offering to ship logs back for the price of finding it first. The wood contributes mightily to a violin's sound. "Some violins have darkness, others a brightness - it is clearly different, depending on the wood," said Flakoll, who tested some models up to 50 hours before making a decision. Alf keeps a cluster of completed instruments in a banker's safe so customers can test them. Sales are often made by word-of-mouth of symphony players, investors and enthusiasts.

An increasing customer base is drawn from his web site at www.alfstudios.com. The site includes samples from customers such as Ruggiero Ricci playing Rachmaninoff's Hungarian Dance and Elmar Olveria playing Respighi's Sonata for Violin and piano in B Minor, played on Alf violins. He often invites the violin players of visiting symphonies to have dinner at his studio. Customers instantly become part of the family. A violinist from India who came to select the ideal instrument was invited to Alf's home to honor the 60th birthday of his mother. The visitor entertained the celebrants with a round of Rachmaninoff on his new acquisition.. "Violinmaking is as much an art as a craft," Alf muses, nothing each violin takes about 200 hours to complete. "You have to make your cuts straight and clear, but you must also incorporate the personality of the artist in the precision of a handmade instrument."”

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