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Pauline Lerner

Happy Father's Day

June 17, 2012 at 8:36 PM

My violin has a beautiful red varnish. It was made some time around the year 1920 in Germany. It belonged to my violin teacher, who lent it to me when I was in high school. It had and still has a beautiful, warm sound. My family didn’t have enough money to buy a good violin like this. After I had played it for a few years, I told my father that I would be very unhappy when I had to give it back to my teacher. “You don’t have to give it back,” my father told me. “It’s yours now.” He had been paying my teacher a small amount of money every week for years. This violin is, in more ways than one, the greatest gift I’ve ever received.

Happy Father’s Day.


From Atilla Yasar
Posted on June 17, 2012 at 11:07 PM
That's very beautiful :)
My teacher also wanted to give me her old violin because I was appearantly too good for the one I had then (and she had played on it for 10 years, including during her conservatory!) (it also had a very warm sound, bt). Even though I didn't take it, because I did have the money to rent a new one (which I did), I'm very thankful for the offer and I'll never forget it :) It's a bit different from your 'story' but I am also very grateful for the person who gifted me with a violin :P (I didn't take it, but the thought alone is more than enough)

So how long have you been using that violin now? It must be a great feeling to play on the violin of your precious teacher.

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 1:31 AM
It is a great feeling to play my teacher's violin, Attila. It adds to the soul and the identity of the instrument.

Joshua Bell plays a Strad that was once owned by Ysaye. Bell says that when he plays music by Ysaye, the violin plays especially well. .

From Man Wong
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 8:34 AM
I don't have the same story/situation, but as an actively involved father of violin students (and someone who grew up having to do w/out), your story warms my heart nonetheless. Hopefully, someday, my own kids will also come to better appreciate how blessed they really are... as I'm sure my own mother had hoped before me (despite the relatively meager means thru which I grew up)...

Cheers! And thanks much for sharing this!

_Man_


From Atilla Yasar
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 12:39 PM
hahaha Pauline, people often spell my name incorrectly but it's rare when the name is right there in front of them :P

And about Joshua bell, I guess I'm not spiritual enough to 'believe' what he says, music is a subjective thing after all, maybe that's why he plays it better.

I wonder how it would be like, though, to play on an old instrument and discover new things about it..

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on June 18, 2012 at 7:30 PM
Atilla, I apologize for misspelling your name.
From Atilla Yasar
Posted on June 19, 2012 at 11:14 AM
Apology accepted :P

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