Rules, Rules, Rules... (con't)
Interviewee: Geoffrey Ovington

With all these rules, frustration is inevitable. “It’s really full of frustration, it never goes exactly according to plan.” He proceeded to tell me of a recent incident in which an instrument, one he had showed me during a prior visit, was ready to go except for it’s varnish. As he was finishing the top, a stroke of varnish revealed a crack which would never have been seen prior to varnishing. “It was broken, I may have to replace the top or ditch the instrument.” he said, which put me in shock particularly when he went on to tell me that the instrument would sound perfectly fine. “I just can’t do it,” he said, “I can’t have a crack there.” 

With all these rules, the job of making a violin has lost that mysterious beauty that I had felt only an hour earlier, “What I do, is about as mysterious as cooking supper,” he says, “I know all the steps, and I know what to do.” That doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy it by any means, however, “When I do it, it really gives me a sense of accomplishment! Every step! Even that stupid instrument in there (referring to the cracked violin in his closet), but I will remedy it. All this stuff makes perfect sense to me.” Making instruments is no mystery, it’s a job, like being lawyer or a repairman.

Prior to his career as an instrument-maker, Geoffrey Ovington was a teacher. After teaching in New York City public schools, Ovington couldn’t handle it anymore, he traveled to France to teach. In France he got a master’s degree and began to find himself in the university system, something he didn’t want. He wasn’t going to become another one of those people who never get to do what they want to do, “Most people don’t take chances, but I took a chance, and it worked.” But why a violin-maker? That’s something Ovington himself can’t explain, “There’s this certain sense about the instrument, difficult to describe, it makes perfect sense to me.”

Ovington’s first instrument was finished in 1973, it was a violin. Since 1976, however, violas have “constituted the majority of my production” as he puts it. The Mannes College of Music commissioned two violas “from his bench” in 1978. Then, in 1991, the Vienna Philharmonic honored him with the commission of three violas. This was the first such commission that orchestra ever made to a living maker. His instruments are played in countless quartets and orchestras in eleven countries.

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Cello | Viola