8 September-October 2008 Applegater
VIOLIN
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Photos by Barbara Holiday
1. The beginning: Michael at ten with his violin in San Diego.
2. Janice Klein restores fine bows for professional musicians using
silver wire, horsehair, leather and lizard skin.
3. Michael demonstrates his handmade grinding wheel, an integral
part of making violins.
4. Hannah Blauser, a young student of Michael’s, is restoring an
antique French violin.
5. Dentist Jeffery Kaze, another student, is intent on making violins
for a living.
6. Applegate denizen Jill Brenkman plays harp and flute in addition
to making violins.
7. Here, in this handmade log cabin classroom, is where Michael
passes the baton to his violin-making students.
8. Hannah Blauser’s violin in progress.
9. From titanium factory work to his sixth and final violin, student
Forrest Vorce will graduate soon from Michael’s school.
10. Jill Brenkman’s second violin dries in the sun.
11. This photo of Michael’s mentor, Vittore E. Giardinieri, hangs
prominently in his classroom.
Michael created by hand. Just as he creates
his musical instruments. First encountered
is the Klein’s two-story Tudor-like residence
built above Michael’s workshop. Daisy
May, a 10-year-old golden lab, appears
to be the official greeter. Farther down
the driveway is the log-cabin classroom
where, on a recent Sunday, four diverse
students were working on violins in various
stages. From the cabin, one can spot the
bunkhouse across the field and up the hill
where visiting students can stay three to
four at a time.
Step back a moment in time, though,
for the genesis of Michael’s interest in
musical instruments and behold the photo
of Michael in his native San Diego when he
was just ten years old—holding his violin.
Michael’s mother swore that he could sing
before he could talk and encouraged his
musical talent by providing the young boy
with piano and violin lessons. (Michael’s
piano teacher “fired” him, however,
because Michael played by ear, which was
unthinkable to his teacher!) Michael was
fortunate enough to be able to serve an
apprenticeship with a Master violin maker,
Vittore E. Giardinieri, and work with him
until Vittore was 86 years old. Vittore
finished his last instrument, a cello, in
Michael’s workshop. He was 96 when he
died a few years ago. Michael named his
school after Vittore, to which Vittore had
donated hand tools.
It was Vittore who also taught
Michael that the Pacific Northwest provides
all the wood needed in the making of
musical instruments--except ebony, which
comes from Africa and Malaysia. “I love
the forest and I believe in using it,” says
Michael. So from various locations in
Oregon, he harvests only the most select
Engleman spruce, western bigleaf maple,
mountain mahogany, brown willow and
pear wood, each used for different parts
of an instrument. The top of a violin, for
example, is made from Engleman spruce;
the back, ribs and neck are of western
bigleaf maple. He may look at 200 to 300
trees before he finds the right wood, which
“has to ring.” The nicest tree he ever found
was a maple in Yoncalla.
After cutting the wood himself,
Michael seals the ends of the wood pieces
in wax, air-dries the wood outside for two
years, then inside for two more years. The
wood is then stored in his shop where it’s
drier and air circulation is optimal. The
total drying process can take from six to
eight years for maple; from four to five
years for spruce.
“To be able to help Grants Pass
High School and the Youth Symphony of
Southern Oregon financially is good heart
medicine. And it’s tremendously rewarding
to teach students who really want to learn.
They are invested, competitive, eager, all
get along great, have fun—and learn a lot,”
said Michael.
Attesting to this, the four students
in the log classroom that Sunday afternoon
were all laughing and enjoying themselves
while hard at work.
Hannah Blauser, who plays and
teaches both piano and violin, has made
two violins under Michael’s tutelage; one is
still in process. At present she is restoring
an old French violin; it may be 100 years
old. She was just 16 years old when she
met Michael when she played in the Grants
Pass High School orchestra (she graduated
three years ago). She knew his name and
came to him to buy a violin, also thinking
she would like to learn to carve wood.
See VIOLIN, page 9