At a shop in downtown Salt Lake City, Peter Paul Prier, master luthier, creates violins, violas, cellos, basses and bows, imparting his skills and knowledge to others.
"The instrument has to look good, it has to be artistically made and the crown of it all is the sound," he explained. "If you can come close in those three areas, within 90 percent of perfection, you have achieved quite a bit."Viewed from a spiritual perspective, there is something instructive in the painstaking competence with which he shapes his instruments, some of which are used by world-renowned musicians.
With comparable care, his life has been shaped by the greatest Craftsman of all. Regarding his life's course, he said, "I see the Lord's hand; that is definitely so."
Knives, clamps and patterns are the violin maker's tools; in shaping lives, people are often the Lord's tools. In Brother Prier's case, one of those tools was his wife, Kay, whom he met less than a year after emigrating from Germany to Salt Lake City in 1960. He credits her with helping him develop his understanding and testimony of the gospel.
In 1972, Brother Prier founded the Violin Making School of America, which Utah Symphony music director Joseph Silverstein recently called a "world-class institution."
The Priers have raised four children: Martin, Paul, Tammy and Dan. Their father has involved them to varying degrees in the store and school.
Born in 1942 in Schlesian, Germany, Peter spent just three years there. In advance of the Soviet occupation of East Germany following World War II, his mother took the three children west to Bavaria. (Their father was killed in the war, although the family did not learn his fate until six years later.)
To foster a budding talent, he attended a music school in Munich at age 13, but he grew homesick. On the train, as he returned to Bavaria, he turned on an inexpensive transistor radio he had purchased at a kiosk and heard a program about the violin-making school in Mittenwald. He was entranced.
"I couldn't wait to get home and tell my mother," he recalled. "She was disappointed, of course. It took about three days to soften her up and get her to call the school."
He spent about four years at the school, learning the craft.
"And I didn't have to give up violin playing," he noted.
Violin making was in fact the avenue that brought him to the headquarters of the Church, where he eventually embraced the gospel.
His employer in Mittenwald was acquainted with the owner of a music store in Salt Lake City. He suggested Peter go there to further his education and career. Before long, the young man was in a car traveling from the airport in Salt Lake City and passing the Salt Lake Temple.
"I wanted to know a little more about it, but the guy I was with\ the son of his Mittnewald employerT had no idea," he said.
It didn't take long, however, for him to become acquainted with the Church. The couple with whom he boarded, Ove and Ida Ernstsen, were active members. He was impressed that Bother Ernstsen, blind, worked at the Church's Welfare Square to support himself.
And Sister Ernstsen had been the teacher of Spencer W. Kimball's Primary class in Thatcher, Ariz. She was like a mother to Peter. Later, he and President Kimball would be the two speakers at her funeral.
Nineteen-year-old Peter met his bride-to-be one night at an indoor swimming pool. Kay, 17, was there with her family.
"The first question he asked me was, `Are you a member of the Church?' I said, `That's just what I was going to ask you,' and he said, `Well, not yet.' The second question was, `Do you like music?' I said, `Well, yes, as a matter of fact, that's my thing.' "
As her family was leaving he asked for her telephone number. She demurred, and he threatened to follow her home unless she gave it to him. So she rattled it off and hurried away.
They began to date, spending much time playing music together, she on piano and he on violin. Meanwhile, he became more interested in the gospel.
"There were a lot of things I had to kind of iron out," he said. "She was very supportive. Kay really helped me with putting this thing together."
Sister Erntsten helped the cause. Occasionally she would place the copy of the Book of Mormon Kay had given him on top of the items in his room.
On one occasion, when he was lamenting Kay's Mormon ways, Sister Ernstsen used a bit of reverse psychology, suggesting he find a nice girl in his own religion. His quick rejoinder was that he didn't want a nice girl in his own religion.
When Peter asked Kay to marry him, she said she wanted a temple marriage. To him, that seemed to be asking a lot. She began to fast and pray to know that the gospel was true and to know if she should marry Peter.
One day, in a listening laboratory at the University of Utah, where she was majoring in music, she had long conversation with a man about the Plan of Salvation. He turned out to be a stake missionary and promised her that if she would bring Peter to their cottage meeting that evening, Peter would join the Church and she would be able to marry him in the temple.
The promise was fulfilled. On May 1, 1964, Peter was baptized, and not too long afterward they married in the Salt Lake Temple.
In 1965, he opened his own violin shop. He became the "violin doctor' for the Utah Symphony, sitting in occasionally with the orchestra.
In 1972, he approached the University of Utah with the idea of founding a violin-making school. Impressed with the concept, university officials were nevertheless reluctant because it would be the first such school in America. (Today there are two others.) Brother Prier decided to do it on his own.
By word of mouth, the school quickly gained an international reputation. Presently 13 students are enrolled from six nations. Many applicants must be turned away to avoid putting too much pressure on the four faculty members.
Son Paul produced a video documentary about the school, "The Sounding Tree," which recently won an award from the National Film Makers Association in the industrial documentaries category. String instrument teachers use it to imbue students with a deeper understanding of their instruments.
Together, the Priers have grown and matured in the gospel.
"The best calling we've ever had is the one we have right now," Sister Prier declared.
Technically, the calling is his: first counselor in the bishopric of the Capitol Hill 3rd Ward of the Salt Lake Stake, a single adult ward. A typical Sunday might find Sister Prier leading the choir or substituting as pianist in sacrament meeting while Brother Prier conducts the meeting.
In ministering to the needs of ward members, the couple have found a winning combination: priesthood blessings and chicken soup. She explained, "When we visit people, if someone is sick or has a need, what really works is a priesthood blessing from the husband and chicken soup from the wife."
"They are some of the finest people I've met," Brother Prier said of the ward members, 80 percent of whom are returned missionaries.
Whether it be playing Beethoven's "Spring Sonata" together or serving the Lord together, the Priers continue to enjoy a harmonious relationship in a setting of gospel values.