Lutherie

Making Matters: a phoenix from the ashes

2019-11-13T13:39:00

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Luthier Shlomo Moyal explains how he restored a 1685 viola da gamba that had been almost destroyed, in a project that took a whole year of patient reconstruction

I never thought I would take a particular interest in the viola da gamba or its instrument family. Like many luthiers I graduated from the Cremona International School of Violin Making and I later worked in ateliers in Europe and Israel, restoring antique and modern instruments and crafting my own. In February 2019, however, I took receipt of an instrument in an appalling state: a viola da gamba that had made international headlines after being severely damaged on an Alitalia ight. Its owner, Myrna Herzog, said that the airline had taken full responsibility for the damage and would pay for the instrument’s full restoration.

Read more in The Strad’s December 2019 issue…

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