Ann Arbor is alive with the sound of music.
When Toronto native Joseph Curtin decided to open a business with a fellow violinmaker who was working in Italy, he didn't anticipate how difficult European markets and culture would be to penetrate. And so he was forced to reconsider his options.
"American had a lot of the interesting research and had a good market where you could actually sell the instruments," Curtin explains.
So the classically trained violinmaker brought his ideas for innovation back to the states and 'accidentally' set up shop in Ann Arbor.
"Capital Airlines had those passes where you could fly anywhere in America for a month. And we went all sorts of places and I think we just collapsed here in exhaustion," Curtin chuckles.
Whatever the initial reason, his decision proved a good one. "It's [Ann Arbor] close to my family in Toronto. It's close to the Detroit airport so I can fly anywhere. And, of course, there's the wonderful Music Society here," he says. "Without them it would have been hard. UMS brings in world class artists on a regular basis and we get to work with them."
Collaborating with leading acoustics researchers, the master violinmaker experiments with instrument acoustics, playability, sound, and ergonomics. Curtin's approach toes the line between art and science to develop the next generation of violin and viola. For instance, his latest project involves a collaboration with one of U-M's top physicists, Gabriel Weinreich, to develop the prototype for an electric violin.
Keith Jefferies got a tour of Joseph Curtin's renown studio on behalf of Concentrate. Click the YouTube video below to see how artistic craftsmanship and technological innovation can come together to make beautiful music.