Frank Lee left his native Shanghai to study furniture making in England. He then invested a quarter-of-a-million dollars to start a business in China but couldn't obtain a license to make furniture.
"I told myself," Lee explains, "that I must spend the minimum amount of money in goods and make the most profitable item, which would be the smallest and most difficult to make."And what is that? A violin and bow."
Lee, who now owns a violin shop in Shanghai that boasts 18 employees, has been in Salt Lake City this past week to attend the Violin Society of America's annual convention. Workshops, de-mon-stra-tions, lectures and a competition for the finest instruments were held in the Little America Hotel for some 500 participants from 20 nations.
Salt Lake's own Peter Prier and Sons Violins, which also operates the local Violin Making School of America, hosted the event.
Many of the conventioneers are trained professionals, some graduates of four-year institutions like the Prier school. But Feng Jiang learned his craft from his father in Beijing, and now works in Ann Arbor, Mich., where his wife studies music.
Jiang takes his craft "very seriously," and says there are specific disciplines involved in a violin-maker's education. "We spend a lot of time carving the wood, and we also learn technical drawing and how to draw the parts of the violin.
"You study acoustical physics, sculpture and the history of Western music, as well as the history of violin making. You also study how to play the violin."
The convention also drew some amateurs, by virtue of the classic definition of "one motivated by love."
John Hartig, a native of Transylvania, now living in Denver, began making violins after retiring from his job as a painter and decorator. Hartig calls his violin making a "very serious hobby." He entered a violin in the competition, where he was up against the best in the world. But Hartig says he is a firm believer in the value of great music, and he's happy just to be a part of it.
Dr. Bill Bucknell, a retired pediatrician from Texas (but originally from England), echoes Hartig's feeling: "There's a satisfaction when you can create something on which people can then create music." Bucknell's daughter is an accomplished violinist.
Many of the professional violin makers in town, including the convention's host, chose their craft for purely aesthetic reasons.
"I always wanted to make violins," said Peter Prier, who also plays the instrument. "I was fascinated by the curvatures. There was a wonderful curvature to it."
Originally from Germany, Prier studied at the Bavarian School of Violin Making. He came to Utah in 1960 to work for the Pearce Music Co., founded his own shop in 1968 and started the school in 1972.
Conventioneers were invited to tour the shop and school during the week. Violin makers from around the world crowded into Peter Prier & Sons' small, first-floor workshop to see John Hatch explain the process of making Spiccato bows.
As Hatch demonstrated the steps, many of the craftsmen had questions on subjects ranging from the bows' centering, to getting the bow out of the mold, to the Spiccato's internationally patented tension-adjusting system. The conversation was jargon-heavy, and the conventioneers examined the revolutionary new bow with discriminating eyes.
Lee seemed particularly impressed with the Spiccato. For eight years he's been experimenting with ways to make quality violins inexpensively in his native land, and for a time tinkered with making bows out of graphite composites.
"In China, many people are making very low (quality) instruments," Lee said. "The violin (my company) makes now is something Chinese cannot make, because they are not knowledgeable enough.
"Of course, American makers could make that violin, but the cost is too high for China. The violin we make now is very similar, quality-wise, to American work. And the cost is Chinese. That way we get it to the market."
A violin-maker from Chicago stumped Hatch with a question about why the Spiccato uses kevlar rather than silk for the adjustment system. But Hatch's brother-in-law, Paul Prier, happened to be passing through and answered the question sat-is-fact-orily.
Paul Prier, son of Peter Prier, could be America's foremost authority on the Spiccato bow. He spent 20 months in France studying with its inventor, Benoit Rolland, and the Priers' shop in Salt Lake City is the only place outside Rolland's in France that makes the Spiccato.
Paul Prier says he never felt pressure to enter the family business. After graduating from West High School, he attended the University of Southern California's prestigious film school but says he "was not fulfilled." After a year at USC and two years as an LDS missionary in Chile, Paul decided he wanted to "see what the shop was all about."
The way his father tells it, Paul announced his decision to be a violin maker when he met his parents in Chile after completing his mission.
"I said, `Do me a favor and think about it tonight,' " Peter recalled. " `It's a very involving thing, and I don't want you to get the wrong impression.' The next morning he said, `Dad, I've decided to be a bow maker (instead of a violin maker), because I don't want to step on your toes.' "
His father sent him to France to study bow making with Rolland. This time Paul was fulfilled, a sentiment he shares with his father and many other violin makers at the convention.
"It's literally a love to do something like this," said Peter. "I have a cello in the exhibition. I made this totally with enjoyment. Every stroke was no pain. It took me 380 hours to make it, but I'm proud of it.
"Every violin is the same way."