All Focus articles
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FocusMy experience: violinist and fiddler Olivia Breen, Mike Block String Camp
’You get these crazy mashups of people who will never play together anywhere else, and your mind is just blown every set,’ says Breen
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FocusMy experience: cellist Findlay Spence, IMS Prussia Cove Masterclasses
’Prussia Cove was a chance for us to escape from the hectic touring lifestyle and go deeper into the music,’ says the cellist of the Fibonacci Quartet
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FocusMy experience: violist-composer Amani Sloley, Cremona International Music Academy and Festival
‘Even though we come from all these different places, we’re all just really big music nerds!’ says Sloley
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FocusMy experience: violist Gwen Ovshinsky, Allcomers Music: Strings in Greece
’We rehearse outdoors in a shaded mini-amphitheatre right by the sea. It’s incredibly beautiful,’ says the violist
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FocusMy experience: violist Claire Pass-Lanneau, ProQuartet
’When you want to do this for your whole career, hearing from someone who has done it for 40 years is very special,’ says the violist
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Focus‘An artist’s eye and an intuitive gift for communication’: tributes to violin maker George Stoppani
Colleagues Sam Zygmuntowicz, Colin Gough and Jim Woodhouse share their memories of the well-regarded British luthier and acoustician, who died on 25 December 2024
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FocusMy experience: cellist Cecilia Hoyt, Prague Summer Nights Young Artists Music Festival
‘There’s just this special energy that comes across the orchestra when you’re playing Don Giovanni where it was premiered,’ says the cellist, ‘I think everyone got goosebumps.’
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FocusThe Strad Calendar 2025: 1717 ‘Windsor, Weinstein’ Stradivari violin
The first Stradivari violin to be given to the Canada Council’s Musical Instrument Bank, it remains in top-class condition
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Focus‘Planting seeds for my relationship with music’ - Hilary Hahn and the Suzuki method
As a former Suzuki student, violinist Hilary Hahn shares her earliest memories of lessons and how they shaped her into the musician she is now
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FocusThe Strad Calendar 2025: 1730 ‘Newland’ Giovanni Francesco Celoniato cello
One of only eight cellos known to be made by the Turin-based luthier, it is named after Canadian cellist Christine Newland
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FocusThe Strad Calendar 2025: 1820 Giovanni Francesco Pressenda violin
Possibly the first instrument ever made by Pressenda, it boasts a two-piece back of slightly burled quarter-cut maple
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Focus‘Not bad’ meant ‘Very, very good!’: what was Leonid Kogan like as a violin teacher?
The distinguished French violinist and quartet leader Isabelle Flory studied with Leonid Kogan at the Moscow Conservatoire for three years. She shares her memories of his teaching methods
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FocusThe Strad Calendar 2025: c.1696 ‘Bonjour’ Antonio Stradivari cello
A beautiful instrument with plentiful red–brown varnish, it has been played by Robert Cohen, Martin Lovett and others
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FocusThe Strad Calendar 2025: 1747 ‘Palmason’ Gennaro Gagliano violin
Named for Canadian violinist Pearl Palmason, the violin has a back of one piece of maple with broad figure
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FocusGreat string players of the past: Gary Karr on Sergey Koussevitzky
Gary Karr shares a spooky connection with double bassist Sergey Koussevitzky, in this article from October 2013
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FocusThe Strad Calendar 2025: 1824 ‘McConnell’ Nicolò Gagliano II cello
A rare cello by the least prolific member of the Neapolitan family, the ‘McConnell’ has a two piece back of slab-cut poplar
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FocusThe Strad Calendar 2025: 1689 ‘Baumgartner’ Antonio Stradivari violin
Marking the end of Stradivari’s early ’Amatisé’ period, it is named for the Swiss violin dealer Fritz Baumgartner
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FocusThe Strad Calendar 2025: 1871 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin
An exact copy of Stradivari’s ‘Messiah’, it remained in a vault in Paris for more than 70 years
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FocusThe Strad Calendar 2025: c.1700 ‘Bell’ Giovanni Tononi violin
With a reddish-brown varnish over a golden ground, this violin shows the influence of Nicolò Amati
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FocusThe Strad Calendar 2025: 1715 Domenico Montagnana violin
A rare example of a violin by the noted Venetian maker of cellos, it has a two-piece back of irregular figure
