Cuba Violinmakers Battle Instrument Shortage

Cuba Violinmakers Battle Instrument Shortage
HAVANA — Oct 15, 2014, 12:00 AM ET
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ Associated Press

In a light-filled workshop cluttered with tools and pieces of old string
instruments, three men carve strips of imported wood and silently
measure the angles of violin pegs and viola necks bent out of tune by
years of use.

Here in the heart of old Havana, Andres Martinez and his two apprentices
wage a daily battle against one of Cuba's lesser-known economic
problems: A country famous for its music is running low on musical
instruments.

Cuba's dozens of free music schools turn out thousands of skilled young
musicians each year, many of whom play imported instruments that can
only be repaired and maintained with hard-to-find materials from abroad.
Delicate and complex, string instruments are among the hardest to keep
in tune.

Before Cuba's 1959 revolution, many students played violins, violas,
cellos and bass from European workshops. After it, the Soviet Union
provided violins and cellos, along with many other goods. Now, as Cuba
struggles to revive its stagnant centrally planned economy, students
must make do with violins from China that too easily pop strings and
lose their tone.

Sponsored by Cuba's city historian and a Belgian nonprofit group called
Fiddlemakers Without Frontiers, Martinez and his apprentices repair
dozens of instruments a year, make a handful from scratch and train
aspiring young violin makers in an attempt to create an indigenous Cuban
violin industry.

"We do everything here from minor repairs to major renovations," said
Martinez, 41. "It's a profession that requires a lot of dedication."

Martinez began as a furniture repairman for the historian's office, a
city agency in charge of caring for Havana's cultural heritage, most
importantly restoring the historic heart of the colonial city. Since the
opening of the workshop three years ago, he has overseen the repair of
more than 400 violins, violas, cellos and bass violins, the restringing
of some 200 bows and the manufacture of a dozen high-quality violins for
professional musicians.

Using high-end imported tools and varnishes, Martinez takes pride in a
quality of work that he says can't be found among amateur repairmen who
use hammers to fix violins.

"Fiddle-making isn't carpentry," he said.

The workshop lends instruments to musicians who need them for concerts
or competitions, and has come to fill a gap left by the death or
emigration of Cuba's handful of world-class violin repairmen in recent
decades, musicologist Miriam Escudero, said.

"This workshop fills a great need," she said.

Cuba opened a violin factory in the eastern province of Camaguey in the
1970s but the native cedar didn't have the quality and resonance
approaching that of European rosewood and maple.

Martinez and his apprentices say their next challenge will be converting
the workshop into a financially self-sustaining operation. They are
considering applying to be a worker-run cooperative, a new form of
business that the Cuban government hopes can be more efficient than many
faltering state industries.

The future of Cuban music may depend, in a small way, on their success
or failure.

"It's like with people," said workman Juan Carlos Prado, 25. "If you
feel bad, you need a doctor. The same thing happens with a musical
instrument. If it isn't working well, you can hear it in the music."

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Associated Press writer Michael Weissenstein contributed to this report.

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Andrea Rodríguez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ARodriguezAP

Source: Cuba Violinmakers Battle Instrument Shortage - ABC News -
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