Jason Bartel

Video

Oral History Information

Interview Date
Job Title
CEO
Company Name
Maple Leaf Strings

Jason Bartel opened Maple Leaf Strings in 2011, right across the street from his father’s business, Baroque Violin Shop, in Cincinnati, Ohio. The two companies helped each other, and often Jason would walk a customer's violin over to his dad for repairs. Jason’s father, Paul Bartel, opened a small violin shop in the family home in1974 with a strong focus on the needs of students and teachers and moved the shop into the historic Smith-Jessup house in 1982. Jason grew up in the shop. After studying product design in college, he returned to the Baroque Violin Shop, which soon expanded into wholesale and a full line of orchestral instruments and accessories. For Jason, the key to business is providing continuing education for his customers. He created training programs and other free services such as Maple Leaf Strings: Accelerando, an orchestral sales and product training series to achieve this objective.