22 - Friday, May 7, 1999 — North Shore News Violin maker blentis art and science | Up to 150 hours work in each creation @ North Shore Chamber Orchestra in concert May 9, 2:30 p.m. at St. Catherines Church. $5 at the door. Layne Christensen News Reporter layne@nsnews.com WHEN conductor Philippe Etter raises his bow to play the final piece on Sunday’s pro- grain, Bach’s Double Violin Concerto in D minor, he'll be making music on a Hurford. His modern instrument, made by West Van violin- maker and orchestra member Frank Hurford will go note for note with guest artist Nancy Di Novo’s 270-year- old violin by Venctian master Deconet. In this playtul duet of old against new, Etter is confident he can hold his own. “Nancy’s instrument has probably just go a little bit of an edge on it,” he says good- naturedly displaying his com- petitive streak. “But I don’t feel like the poor councry cousin.” Hurford’s one-year-old instrument is very fine indeed, he says. 4 “He’s a very, very goo maker and it sounds excep tionally good for 2 modern instrument,” says Etter, who for 23 years was a member of put the fiddle in the bottom of the trunk and it stayed there for 40 years,” says Hurford. “When I retired I thought Pil take the fiddle out of the trunk —- limber up the fin- gers, be good tor the arthri- as.” “Tae thought of playing that old dog of an instru- ment” turned him off, he says, and turned him on to the idea of making his own. the Purcell String Quartet, Western Canada’s premier chamber group. Hurford rurned to violin making 20 vears ago when he retired as secretary treasurer of the Burnaby School Board. As a boy he had learned the violin but had set aside his hobby when he joined the RCAF as a flight instructor during the Second World War. “When the war came on I North Vancouver Youth @ North Vancouver Youth Band’s Diamond Jubilee Concert at Centennial Theatre May 8, 7 p.m. $9/$6. Box office: 984-4484. Layne Christensen News Reporter layne@nsnews.com THE boys in the band are sporting a few grey hairs. North Vancouver Youth Band alumni have temporarily rejoined the ranks in preparation for the band’s 60th anniversary concert Saturday at Centennial Theatre. Standing side by side with fresh-faced teens during rehearsals at Highlands Elementary the past several weeks are oldtimers like 74-year-old Wally Dyer. Dyer joined the band, then known as the North Vancouver City and District Schools Band, in its inaugural year. He left at 18 when he joined the RCAF during the Second World War. Today he plays trombone with the 18-piece dance band The Milleraires. The band’s ranks have temporarily swelled to 125 performers from its usual 86 members. “We're trying to keep the volume down because, good God, you don’t want the audience leav- ing with a headache,” said Dyer, joking about the unusually full sound concert-goers can expect to experience Saturday. Times have changed since Ron Smith first joined the band in 1952 as a young trombonist, about a year before his late father Arthur Smith picked up the baton as bandmaster. : “We used to perform in tattoos,” said Smith of the military pageantry of the marching band. NEWS photo Brad Ledwidge RETIRING bandmaster Ron Smith conducts students and alumni in rehearsal for the North Vancouver Youth Band’s Diamond Jubilee concert Saturday. RETIRED accountant Frank Hurford has been honing the craft of violin making for 20 years. On Sunday his instruments will be used in North Shore Chamber Orchestra’s final concert of the season. cy. After vou make a couple of them vou sort of gee hooked on it.” savs Hurtord. Each instrament takes him upwards of 150 hours te com- plete. Once constructed, each violin is lovingly finished with a dozen lavers of varnish. Hurtord has sold a few of his masterpicces to colicagues in the orchestra and young violin students but he’s hardly in it for the money. A violin, which he may sell tor just a few hundred dollars, costs about $500 in materials alone. The artist is happy to sce his instruments played and enjoyed. Etter, for one, is enjoying his one-vear-old violin. “Pm having a great ume with it. It’s a beautiful instru- ment,” he says, with just one caveat. “It’s not as good as the best — but then you're looking at a massive price dif- ference.” The “best,” as any violin- ist knows, is a Stradivarius or Guaneri, named for the famous [tralian violin-making families of the 18th century. Etter admits there is snob appeal attached to a Strad that comes with a price tag of $1 million. But these instru- ments also have the advan- tage of age. “Instruments improve a lot by being played and just by the natural aging process of the wood,” he explains, “They have great collector's and antique values apart from, the fact that they do sound absolutely fantastic. It could well be that Frank’s instrument will get to sound like that after the wood has aged and it’s been played a lot. It could end up by being superb.” NEWS photo Mike Wakefield fect proportions to make the violin resonate with sound. Unlike the Old Masters, he uses a home-made frequency counter to test the violin’s acoustics. It’s a labour-inten- sive process, but one that he enjoys, and has spent increas- ingly more time at since his wife Irene died a year and a half ago. “It requires a great deal of patience and care and accura- He crafted his first instru- ment under the guidance of Vancouver violin maker George Friese. Twenty years later he’s working on his 36th. Violin making is a unique blend of art and science. Working with maple imported from Europe, he uses a band saw to cut the violin’s front and back then shapes the sound plates using metal files to achieve near-per- Band aging tunefuliy “Now kids think it’s something on your arm.” Smith has conducted since 1978 and currently runs the beginner, junior and intermediate sec- tions. He'll retire after Saturday’s concert. Many former band members have become professional musicians, while others have chosen careers in a wide range of professions. There are school teachers, doctors, lawyers and nurses, said Keith Errington, a past president of the band whose daughter and son were members in the late-'70s to mid-’80s. Band alumni could “bring people into the world, we could look after them while they’re here and there’s a couple of morticians so we could put them to rest too,” he said with a chuckle. 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