Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Gray.
Sarah, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was training as a singer, and I was a sculptor. Stone carving. I went to college after a year in Brasil (Olympia, São Paolo.) And quickly shifted gears from Bachelor’s of art to Conservation of art. Went to Florence, Italy and kept sculpting and learning conservation. Quickly I shifted from just artifacts to hoping to try restoring sculptures and architecture and then shifted back towards music as I passed the instrument collection at the Academia dei Belle Arte, curated by Gabrielle Rossi.
Immediately, I got an internship with the museum and started trying to also form a loose, informal apprenticeship with the celebrated Florentine violin maker, Carlo Vettori. Returned to the US and opted to pursue a career with the title, Luthier- focus in Violin Restoration. This is a very old-world craft. Rich in culture and craft and tradition. Apprenticeship is still the only real way to learn and master the art and craft. Focus shifted from conservation to conservative restoration as my apprenticeships and my understanding of the influence shops around the country and world. I began investing heavily in tools and training to make tools, in wood, all ages and types of what we use in the field. Began reading journals and attending trade conferences of the Violin Society of America and attending summer sessions. Also making connections and working one in one with makers or restorers each year one-on-one to continue to hone the craft.
Now, I am a board member of the Violin Society of America and am the founder and acting director of a non-profit “the master class talks annual series, Inc” and run my business, “Sarah E Gray Restoration of Violins violas cellos, LLC. I offer conservative restoration, education, maintenance, ergonomic set-up and ethical tonal adjustments and repairs for instruments if the violin family. Through the safeguard of the non-profit, I offer annual events to showcase and spread awareness of new, ethical research findings as this field is currently experiencing a Renaissance in our time. Cross-field cooperation and cross-shop, master to master nation to nation cooperations is yielding the most exquisite and unparalleled second golden age of making and restoration skill. Took and materials like pigment and wood availability and information age and new technology being applied to this work in ways that are enhancing and highlighting without losing intrinsic properties if what makes a violin a violin while still achieving greater and more demanding challenges players need from the tools they use to stay competitive. I also speak at schools and universities regionally to students and faculty. Host clinics and attend trade shows. I am working with the goal to contribute to this exciting field but in a local way.
Ground zero for students and professions in my area. I also offer a technology showcase to highlight new, viable technology players should be aware of. All in a setting where experimentation is encouraged and the players’ input of great value. It has been, perhaps 16 years in the field. I am grateful for the mentors in this field. Grateful for the trailblazers for woman’s equality, such as Marilyn Wallin, who help found the VSA of which I am now a board member and helped among others establish a course in school and in the workplace where women can endeavor to cut teeth in this field without the type of prejudice these pioneers faced. She also helped found a cooperative in Boston and taught at the School of Violin making and teaches varnish courses. She is now a neighbor of mine as we are both native to Nebraska and as our training and professional lives took us in our own time and own separate ways around the US we landed back in Nebraska. She was featured among the celebrated 5 of the to date Master Class Talks speakers.
I started my shop about 8 years ago in Nebraska and finally graduated to sore front at the Flatiron Building downtown. I travel on-site, sometimes out of state for work or courier pick-up and enthusiastic for in-trade work, as well.
Has it been a smooth road?
The road has been quite thrilling in many ways. Very difficult nut to crack, this field. Difficult to distinguish one’s self from dealers or makers or what kind of restorer or tonal adjustments needed and the nuances of market and area. Mostly it is difficult to apprentice. No pay or very little. All tools have to be made or bought on one’s one, generally. There is a scandal in this field. It is steeped in a mysterious shroud of sometimes less than ethical shops calling who knows what whatever.
Treatment of players, of gender or other minorities. The people for whom we serve are salt-of-the-earth but also facing a variety of other pressures and our work and payment and ever-changing techniques at our disposal, also trade standards for ethics make it tricky.
It has been difficult to try to explain to non-musical people the function my shop plays. Also a bubble of new cropping up mini-shops (such as my own) 1-6 person shops all over and sometimes over saturating an area as opposed to the mega (almost sweat)shops of yesteryear. Also, economic difficulties of players and orchestras losing funding and collapsing, education systems dropping music and arts programs, the rarest old instruments (the celebrated antiques) are at such a high value very few musicians playing on them own them. Makers today are competing in every way with them making Instruments somewhat more attainable in terms of price, but there are still drawbacks. The major ecstasy of new makers being trained very well in now Thriving US and other areas in world means soon there will potentially be a glut of available instruments.. for me, a restorer who will even bother to restore these works when living makers can guarantee their work for their lifetime and if major cracks/damage and insurance claims come up the maker can simply make a new top or component of his or her instrument and the question of devaluation become mute.
I think regionally it has been difficult to maneuver training and quality of work with the quality of affordable Instruments most prevalent in the community. I think it is difficult to say there are still very distinct schools of making, which might be difficult for authenticity issues of Instruments made in this period down the road. I think striking out in this field in general has been quite an endeavor.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I would refer to the previous few questions. Maintenance, education, ergonomic set-up, conservative restoration, ethical tonal adjustments, rehairs in the French tradition. I feel most confident in adjustments and restoration. Particularly varnish and certain woodworking skills. I have a real affection for the sciences and with acoustics. I designed and built a groin vault in my shop to help mimic certain aspects of both playing scenarios and also qualities in sound useful for adjustments. Also the Master Class Talks I Incorporated to help advance field from micro to macro. Offering a podium for researchers and exceptional, peer-recognized authorities in our field to come and teach our community at a player level in-depth information that is practical to them on a given topic. And all under the safeguard of zero sales pitch. The event is free and boasts some serious punch in terms of speakers qualifications.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Boston is a great place to apprentice and place to find ample opportunity for exceptional training. But there are quite a few shops. To work in the field, yes, to start-up, I’d wonder at the motives to try to remake the wheel as opposed to joining forces.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1722 Saint Mary’s Ave suite 120; Omaha, NE 68102
- Phone: 4028893515
- Email: sarahgray.info@gmail.com
Image Credit:
Sarah Gray
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