Craft Forums
American Craft Forums are free online conversations that bring the community together to explore new ways of thinking about craft. Tying into the themes of each issue of American Craft, these discussions feature diverse voices working together to move the craft field forward.
FORUM DETAILS
The Violinmaker & The Virtuoso: Craft from the Workshop to the Concert Hall
This Craft Forum took place October 5, 2023.
Presented in conjunction with the Fall 2023 issue of American Craft.
Watch the Forum below or visit our YouTube channel.
At its heart, craft is not a static endeavor. Whether you are working with a team of artists, as with glassblowing, or leaning into the “lone artist toiling in their studio” trope, craft lives and breathes, changes and grows between hands and spaces. When the object leaves the studio it takes on new life for someone else in a new place. For luthier Eric Benning of Benning Violins, craft lives through multiple generations of a family business that makes world-renowned stringed instruments for those just learning and those gracing some of the world’s greatest stages. When Benning completes a violin he doesn’t just hang it on the wall; it’s not decorative. He places that violin in the hands of someone like virtuoso violinist Vijay Gupta, who then uses it to direct his own creative force, his gift, his craft. This object that appears static and still, complete, continues its journey through Gupta’s playing.
Join us for a conversation between these two incredibly talented individuals who share a love of, and connection through, music and the instruments that give that music voice. They will discuss the symbiotic relationship between player and maker, explore ideas around how moments of transition and transformation can lead to great joy, and share the ways music can be employed to help other people. What kind of power and promise is inherent in this craft of making beautiful tools for another type of creative energy and expression?
Participants
Jennifer Vogel
Moderator
Jennifer Vogel is the former senior editor of American Craft. She has worked as a reporter, writer, and editor for many publications and outlets, including Minnesota Public Radio, City Pages, and Mother Jones. Jennifer, who holds a degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota, published a memoir, Flim-Flam Man, that won the Minnesota Book Award. She is an avid reader, a decent cook, an enthusiastic boat passenger, and an appreciator of things that are beautiful and also useful.
Vijay Gupta
Speaker
Vijay Gupta is a violinist, speaker and citizen-artist dedicated to creating spaces of wholeness through music. Hailed by The New Yorker as a “visionary violinist…one of the most radical thinkers in the unradical world of American classical music,” Vijay leads a protean career as a thought leader, performer, collaborator, and communicator.
Vijay is the founder and Artistic Director of Street Symphony, a community of musicians creating connections for people in reentry from homelessness, addiction and incarceration in Los Angeles. Vijay is also a co-founder of the Skid Row Arts Alliance, a consortium dedicated to creating art for – and with – the largest homeless community in America. For his work in “bringing beauty, respite, and purpose to those all too often ignored by society”, Vijay was the recipient of a 2018 MacArthur Fellowship.
Eric Benning
Speaker
Eric Benning, Benning Violins, began making his first violin under the direction of his violinmaking parents, Hans and Nancy Benning, at the age of 9. Working only Saturdays and vacation days, Eric completed the violin at age 11. This was the beginning of a passionate desire to craft instruments and to follow in the proud tradition of his family.
Eric has specialized in the making of fine violins, violas and cellos based on the great Italian masterworks, and even a few viola d’amores–crafting over 120 instruments to date–while perfecting the old-world style and working traditions that mark his current work. He has been honored to accept special commissions, including bench copies of the Peregrino de Zanetto viola and a Giovanni Francesco Pressenda violin owned by the LA Philharmonic.
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