Stradivarius - Ann Arbor Pair Copies Vintage Violins
By Ami Walsh
The Detroit News, February 18, 1991
ANN ARBOR – Violin makers Gregg Alf and Joseph Curtin remember the house on Violco San Marco in Cremona, Italy where they first met. They remember riding bicycles down the cobblestone streets where a long list of legendary masters, most notable Antonio Stradivarius once lived.
But mostly they remember the first fiddle they made together.
“We saw this instrument…and said, ‘Hey why don’t we make a copy of this,’” recalls Alf, 33. “It turned out wonderfully,” adds Curtin, 37. “Better than either one of us could’ve done own our own.”
So began Curtin and Alf.
Six years later, from their shop in Ann Arbor, the two men produce some of the finest violins on the modern-day market. Their trademark appears on the bridges of instruments played by musicians in England’s prestigious Academy of St.Martin’s-in-the-Field to the Berlin Philharmonic to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. And recently an increasingly number of world-renown soloists are commissioning work from the young craftsmen.
Violinist Elmar Oliveira, for example, recently performed at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall on a Curtin & Alf 1716 Stradivari replica. Oliveria owns two original Strads but prefers the sound of a Curtin and Alf.
Of course not all musicians have the luxury of choosing between an original or a copy. DSOO violinist Yien Hung paid less than $10,000 for his Curtin & Alf Stradivari copy back in 1988. The original, he says might have cost him upwards of $1 million.
This year, Curtin and Alf figure they’ll each finish a violin every month. At about $12,000 each, their business will ring up nearly $300,000 in 1991. That figure could climb even higher if they firm up a deal with the Smithsonian Institution to build replicas of a string quartet (two violins, a viola, and cello). A Spanish king commissioned the originals, circa 1690, from Stradivari.
For such a commission, as they do for most of their instruments, Curtin & Alf would import materials from the Karpathian Mountains in Yugoslavia, fittings from England, fingerboards from India and varnishing ingredients from countries around the Baltic Sea and Florence.
Duplicating sound, on the other hand, isn’t as easy. After observing, measuring and weighing the original, the instrument is placed through a series of sound and sonar devices to measure things such as thickness and quality of the wood.
“We start out with wood that’s similar to original by visual inspection and back that up with sonar or help us verify our selection, and then build the same outside shape and use sound generators to tune the plates inside,” says Alf. “If we do all that, we have a similar instrument.”
Both Curtin, a Canadian native, and Alf, who was raised in California, once aspired to become professional violinists. Discouraged in art by the brilliance of younger musicians they studied with, they turned from fiddle playing to fiddle making. Alf moved to Cremona in 1976 and Curtin in 1982.
“It seemed logical to go to Cremona,” says Alf. “Because that’s where Strad and the great makers of all time lived.”
Not many violin makers set up shop in Ann Arbor. But after looking at cities around the country, they decided to start their business in this college town that is home to the University of Michigan.
“It was partly the proximity to Chicago and New York,” says Curtin. “And on the third visit back to Ann Arbor, we went to the home of Ruggiero Ricci and sold two violins on the spot.”