lwl

Wow, really quite the necropost. The former teenaged members of this forum's early days have by and large done pretty well for themselves.

Reputable shops of significant size with in-house luthiers: Brobst (Alexandria) Potter's (Takoma Park) Gailes (College Park) Perrin's (Baltimore) But a good luthier is likely to discourage you from doing it:

On the Brahms/Bruch thing -- when Bruch was alive, some people assumed he was Jewish because he composed Kol Nidrei.

This Francis Boyle guy is a lawyer, not a physician. He used to be on the board of Amnesty International, currently specializes in international law, and started his career practicing tax law. Here's his bio - https://law.illinois.edu/faculty-research/faculty-profiles/francis-boyle/

Mine is fantastic (when in proper adjustment, and it's pretty damned finicky about it). But I've also tried numerous others that weren't good.

For a player, I think you do not want to buy an instrument of a higher quality than you are able to grow into -- i.e. it doesn't need to be ideal for your current playing level, but if it's beyond you now, you should be able to get from where you are now to the point where the instrument sounds excellent in your hands within a reasonable amount of time (probably weeks to a few months for someone whose playing level is fairly stable, but years for a student who is making significant progress). The strengths and weaknesses and quirks of your personal technique, especially with regard to sound production, is going to be a major influence on how a particular violin sounds in your hands. What it would sound like in someone else's hands is largely irrelevant.

What is your total budget? You probably need to spend $500 to $750 on the bow alone, if you intend to buy a decent bow. That will probably be a carbon-fiber bow or a Brazilian workshop bow at that price; you probably won't be able to go below $250 for the bow. So I assume that leaves you at less than $1,000 for the violin. At that price point you will find better quality rentals than what you could buy. I would suggest that you rent for at least a year, save more money, have your daughter try plenty of violins, and then try to buy. At that price point, the best deals are likely to be contemporary Chinese workshop violins. Ignore what your teacher said about old French/German. Such instruments are still workshop violins, and at that price point you will be buying a heavily-repaired instrument or one that's not particularly high quality.

I'm curious -- are there any excellent contemporary makers that are regularly producing Bergonzi copies, especially of the smaller, 352mm-or-less models?

I too believe that the resulting sound is a mix of violin, bow, and player, but we are neglecting the degree to which the equipment actually influences the player. Some players are fundamentally a better match for some equipment. Different players will respond differently to the feedback coming out of the instrument, as well. Equipment that offers more expressive possibilities will draw more expressive playing out of the player. Plus we all react to the sound we hear under our ears with unconscious adjustments. I recently tried a lovely D. Peccatte bow and found that I had automatically, instinctively changed my sounding point to be much closer to the bridge (with resulting change in projection) because the bow drew a beautiful and clean sound there (without any of the close-to-the-bridge harshness that can sometimes occur). The violinist who was showing off the bow had to draw my attention to what I was doing before I realized it. Having used different (well-made, contemporary as well as antique) violins in concertos with orchestra, I am absolutely a believer that there are meaningful differences in how well they project.

Trade shows: Musikmesse (for the music industry in general). Mondomusica (for strings in particular)

LA has tons of dealers. I imagine that with 25+ years of adult (professional?) playing under your belt in your local area, you probably have a relationship with one or more shops. There are multiple large high-end shops. Metzler, Benning, Weisshaar, etc. See https://stringsmagazine.com/a-roundup-of-5-violin-shops-in-los-angeles/ for starters. In this price range, focus on playing qualities, not country of origin. (It's kind of strange you're US-based but you quoted a budget in euros.)

@GeorgeH, I don't think "appealing tone" is necessarily presumed. Rather, dealers can look at the physical construction of an instrument not currently in a playable state, and have a guess as to its playing qualities once properly fixed up and set up. I agree that every instrument has a presumed value based on the maker, date, condition, provenance, etc. However, whether a dealer chooses to acquire it, and what they are willing to pay to acquire it is going to be very much based on how long they think it will take to sell it, and what they are likely to get as an actual purchase price for it. That's sometimes quite dependent upon the part of the world they are in, too. For that matter, you can even see quite different prices for the same maker between the east and west coasts of the US, I'm told.

@GeorgeH, you realize Jeffrey Holmes is one of the trade's most respected and experienced dealers and restorers, right? (He spent two decades at Shar, notably.) The reason that "appeal" is important is that it ultimately reflects saleability. Something might "warrant" a price of $X due to the maker/condition/provenance/etc. but actually moving that piece of stock, i.e. successfully finding a buyer to buy it at $X, is a different matter entirely. At some point in time, the seller might very well have to take $X minus Y% in order to actually sell it to someone, at which point it calls into question whether $X is the true value. A seller might have to wait years and years before someone comes along and is actually willing to pay $X. Whereas something that has a lot of broad appeal might very well sell fairly quickly for $X and perhaps even $X plus Z%. Good dealers know what traits appeal to their particular clients and will have a good guess as to the saleability of the stock they're buying.

It should also be pointed out that Lara St John (who is a very fine violinist with a pretty solid lengthy solo career at this point) did report it when it occurred, and Curtis declined to do anything about it at the time. The reason it's important for institutions to confront this historical behavior is to ensure that policies and processes have changed in the meantime to ensure that it doesn't happen again now. We are seeing this happen in many private schools (primary and secondary schools) across the country, for instance -- in many such cases it involves men in their 50s, 60s, or 70s raise accusations against male teachers that have long since dead, but the law-firm investigation finds the original complaints or other supporting evidence of abuse long-suppressed, and in some cases discovers that the school does not have adequate protective measures now, either.

I can see wanting a specific country of origin, or historical importance, if one is a collector focused on investment potential as opposed to just looking for an instrument that one enjoys playing. But if you're just looking for the best-playing cello, I'd totally ignore origin. Did you try any of the cellos at the recent Reed-Yeboah exhibition?