VIOLIN ACOUSTICS

VSA-Oberlin Acoustics Workshop

The VSA-Oberlin Acoustics Workshop is an annual summer workshop that brings together violinmakers, researchers, and players for a week of experiments, demonstrations, and presentations. The goal is to better understand the violin at a scientific level and then use that understanding to build better instruments.

This summer we return to our traditional home at Oberlin College. We will continue our investigations into the bridge and soundpost, but the focus will be on participants learning to use a newly developed, inexpensive measurement rig NEED LINK along with the associated ObieApp software. Places are limited. While we give priority to skilled makers and researchers willing to commit to pre-organized experiments, let us know if you have a project of your own to propose.

Our session this summer is dedicated to the memory of George Stoppani, a violinmaker and researcher who made seminal contributions to the Workshop and to the science of the violin. In George’s honor, and thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, the fees for this session have been reduced from $950 to $650, and the cost of measurement rigs from $1,500 to $300!

When: Plan to arrive Sunday, May 31st, for a welcome dinner and introductory meeting. Full activities begin Monday morning June 1st and end Saturday afternoon, June 6th. Departure is that evening or the following day.
 
Where: Oberlin College is about a 30-minutes drive from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. All activities will take place in Kahn Hall, which is a modern air-conditioned dormitory. Shuttle buses to and from the airport will be arranged.
 
Fees: The $650 fee includes tuition and lodging in Kahn. It also includes a Sunday welcome dinner and a Saturday wrap-up lunch. Participants are responsible for all other meals. There is a wide selection of restaurants within walking distance of Kahn.
 
Applications should be sent to Fan Tao at info@violinacoustics.org. They should include your current contact information. If you have not attended a past Acoustics Workshop, please let us know your professional background, experience, skills, and interests as well as what you hope to learn from and contribute to the workshop.

Faculty Bios

Joseph Curtin, co-director of the Workshop, is a violinmaker, researcher, and writer whose interests extend from traditional instruments to experimental ones using alternative materials and architectures. Curtin has collaborated with many researchers, including Gabriel Weinreich, Claudia Fritz, and Jim Woodhouse. He has delivered colloquia at the physics departments of Stanford, Princeton, and Cornell universities, and contributes regularly to The Strad. He is co-author with Claudia Fritz of three papers published in the Periodical of the National Academy of Sciences. He co-wrote with Thomas Rossing the chapter on violin acoustics in the Springer textbook, “The Science of Musical Instruments.” In 2005, Curtin was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. He lives and works just outside Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Evan Davis was a Technical Fellow at the Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company, where he led their structural acoustics research group. He is a recognized expert in the field of Statistical Energy Analysis, a method for modeling and analyzing complex structural acoustic responses in the mid-to-high audio frequency range. His early fascination with guitars led to the construction of several instruments, and to a PhD in guitar acoustics from the University of Washington. He joined the Catgut Acoustical Society in 1976 and is on the Editorial Board of the VSA. Davis has worked with some of world’s leading guitar builders on ‘out of the box’ projects. He performs with several bands as a jazz drummer and a gypsy jazz guitarist.

Fan-Chia Tao, co-director of the Acoustics Workshop, is Director of Research and Development at D’Addario & Company, where he designs strings for bowed-string instruments and guitars. His deep interest in violin acoustics was fostered by his mentor Norman Pickering, who originally invited him to join D’Addario. Tao is an accomplished amateur violinist and violist with an abiding interest in chamber music. He holds electrical engineering degrees from Caltech and Princeton University, is a Trustee of the CAS Forum (formerly the Catgut Acoustical Society) and a past President of the Violin Society of America.

Jim Woodhouse (Professor Emeritus at Cambridge University, England, is a leading figure in violin research, and has done foundational work on the bowed-string and other aspects of violin acoustics. His first degree was in mathematics, but a hobby interest in building instruments led to a PhD in violin acoustics from Cambridge. He worked for an engineering consultancy on a variety of problems in structural vibration, then in 1985 he joined Cambridge’s University’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, first as Lecturer, then Reader, then Professor. His research interests all involve vibration, and musical instruments have been a major focus. Woodhouse lives in Cambridge, England, and though now retired, he continues to work on stringed instrument acoustics. He contributes to the Acoustics Workshop via Zoom sessions.