making music is a craft and these are my tools

cello

Whether I’m playing new or old music, I’ll be playing on my mysterious and beautiful cello, an instrument found and brought to life by Amsterdam-based luthier Guust François. The cello is German, or maybe French, and certainly made in the 1700’s. We don’t know who made it, but it’s likely it was made for a performer and not just a wealthy aristocrat - judging from the amount of use over the years. I’ve had the honor from time to time to play some of the finest instruments available including cellos made by Amati, Stradivarius, Montagnana, and even played a wonderful Testore on loan to me for 5 years from the Jumstart Jr. Foundation… and my mystery cello maker has them all beat.

strings

I play exclusively on gut strings (even for new music), and have done so since my undergrad days in conservatory. Gut strings are made from leftover sheep or cow intestines - not cat! There is an ‘earthy’ and visceral richness in the sound produced by gut strings and I can say with confidence that as a whole, the string instrument world has truly lost important layers of sound and expressivity from the widespread use of steel and synthetic strings since the 1950s. I currently use Aquila strings for my cello and Kurschner strings for my Viola da Gamba. Here’s some great info on the process of making gut strings - Aquila blog on unsplit lamb gut strings

bows

It takes a truly great bow to make truly great sounds! Even the most special of instruments will not sing to its full potential if it is not paired with a good bow. Rodney Mohr is one of the greatest bow makers alive and I have the incredible privileged of playing both a modern bow and a classical bow made by him. Rodney’s bows don’t just allow one to play a beautiful phrase - they actually shape how the player shapes the music - a defining feature of the greatest bows. Rodney is based in Ohio.

My baroque bow is made by another wonderful bowmaker based in the US, Harry Grabenstein. Thanks to a small award for Historical Performance from Oberlin, Grabenstein’s bow was the first I purchased when I graduated from conservatory and it has been a faithful and constant partner every time I sit down to play Baroque music. Grabenstein speciailizes in historical bows and is based in Vermont.

viola da gamba

After completing an M.M. in Viola da Gamba and Baroque Cello Performance, I quickly moved back into performing but it was primarily on cello. Here and there I would borrow an instrument in order to fulfill requests of performing gamba but it wasn’t until 2019 that I owned a quality Viola da Gamba. This is a fine instrument that I acquired from Guust Francois. It is a 7-string instrument (copy of Nicolas Bertrand - 1714) made by the Iesta Violin Workshop and is capable of playing a wide variety of music. I use it primarily in my ensemble Les Délices but I also enjoy pulling together various solo programs and composing for the instrument.