violins

Charles Avsharian is the CEO of Shar Musical Products, which he established in 1962 along with his brother, Michael. The brothers toured for years as professional musicians and along with their father formed a small business to provide instruments and accessories to their friends and fellow musicians. When the company grew the boys decided to work full time for the company, which has continued to grow in size and service.
 

Harry Benson became the president of William Lewis & Sons when the company was under the ownership of Chicago Musical Instrument (CMI). Harry’s guiding principles resulted in the expansion of the violin line and the respect of fellow violin makers such as Kurt Glaesel. Harry was also the one-time boss of another industry veteran and strong supporter of this archive collection, Robert S.

George Borun began his luthier endeavors as a hobby and soon found himself enthralled with the angles, the woods and the tools of the trade. He embarked on a mission to assemble the blueprints and patterns of the world’s finest string instruments and sought to solve the mystery of their uniqueness. Along the way he created an impressive collection of instruments he made by hand and topped off his belief in giving music back to music makers by then donating his instruments to students of all levels.  

Lou Capece began selling musical products in the 1960s and has since become one of the industry’s largest musical instrument wholesale distributors. One of the successes of the company has been the development of their self-branded instruments with names well known around the world today, such as Oxford, DiPalo and New York Pro. After a long and successful career as a guitarist, Lou began selling accessories and instruments to his friends and fellow musicians. Soon the company grew enough that Lou could work full time for the wholesale business and travel less, making it possible for him to stay at home with his young family much more.

Ellen Cavanaugh brought her innovative business ideas and skillful communication and marketing concepts to expand the historic brands that make up the Super-Sensitive Musical String Company. Formed in the 1930s and established on the Red Label line of strings, Super-Sensitive was purchased by Ellen’s husband in 1967 and the company moved from Chicago to Florida to focus on new markets and a new product line. Ellen played a key role in the company’s expansion into other accessories and musical products.
 

John Cavanaugh and his father bought the Super-Sensitive Musical String Company in 1967 and worked long and hard to bring the products into new and international markets. John created the research and development department for the company, designing new products such as the Old Fiddler line. John also sought to improve the strings available for cellos and basses and introduced the now renowned Supreme string line.  

Charlie Daniels won the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance in 1979 for "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", which reached #3 on the charts. The following year, "Devil" became a major crossover success on rock radio stations, after its inclusion on the soundtrack for the hit movie Urban Cowboy. The song is only one element of his long career in music, which includes songwriting, publishing, performing and being a strong advocate for music education. His performances have been a strong influence of the sales on violins in the United States, especially in the months and years following his many hit recordings, which also include "The South's Gonna Do It Again" and "Long Haired Country Boy." 

Kurt Glaesel was born into a violin-making family, which dates back to 1720, but it was Kurt who made his family name nationally known. After a noted 20 year career with Heinrich Roth, Kurt established Glaesel String Instrument Service, Inc. in 1973. The company was soon sold to Selmer, where Kurt remained making his handcrafted instruments for 15 additional years. During that time, Selmer marketed the string instrument line with a strong, worldwide campaign that featured Kurt’s likeness on each ad and brochure.  

George Gruhn is without question one of the top experts of vintage guitars on the planet! George collected guitars before opening the world renowned Gruhn Guitar Shop in Nashville, TN in the early 1970s. Since that time he has authored several historical reference guides and thousands of articles on his vast collection and knowledge including “Acoustic Guitars & Other Fretted Instruments: A Photographic History” published in 1993.  

Reiner Hammerl is the son of Josef Hammerl, who in 1938 opened a drugstore in Germany. Among the products he created himself were natural wood varnishes and stains that soon became well used by violin makers. When Reiner joined the company in 1954, the product line was well established as a leading varnish for instrument makers. Over the years they continued to add to the varnish in color and dyes and also added a line of stains and brushes created for musical instrument makers. The drugstore closed in 1992 but Reiner and his son Michael continue to produce the famous varnishes.