Galamian’s Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching is a classic of violin pedagogy.  Often considered oe of the most influential teachers of the twentieth century teaching great violinists such as Perlman and Zuckerman Galamian developed his principles and methods which are masterfully detailed in this book penned by Elizabeth Green at Galamian’s approval.

The film by Pere Portabella is “an approach to music and the trades and subjects that surround it through Bach’s works.” It was presented at the 64th Venice International Film Festival 2007. A series of beautiful vignettes which explores the relationship between image and music where the music is the subject of the narrative itself.

I am thirty-six years old and have been playing the violin again for almost two years. In starting on this venture it has come to my attention that there are scores of adult beginners out there who have launched into the unsure waters of learning to play the violin. It is often an exercise in frustration and difficulty but it has also awakened a new passion for the music of the violin and reawakened a passion for music I have always had.

When Philippe Quint left his four million dollar stradivarius on loan from the Stradivari Society in Chicago in a New York city cab he was so relieved to have it returned by his taxi driver Mohammed Khalil that he will give a free outdoor recital in the taxi holding area of the Newark Airport 3pm Sunday.

The violin is an instrument capable of a seemingly inexhaustible depth of expression in the hands of capable musicians. Jacob Augustus Otto says it holds pre-eminent rank amongst all instruments and “it may indeed be the perfect instrument, as by the peculiarity of its construction, the minutest gradation of tone can be produced upon it.” Its range and tonal quality bear resemblance to the human voice and when well played it most certainly sings.