On a table next to the window, a dismantled violin rests on a pile of wood shavings. Clad in a blue apron, apprentice luthier Caridwen Spatz works to transform the unlovely school instrument into something that just might make beautiful music. As...

In a finding that is sure to add to one of the longest-running debates in music, a detailed analysis of the varnish on five instruments made by Antonio Stradivari reveals that he coated the wood with a rather humdrum mix of oil and resin. Those looking...

Ah, the romance of the violin. Over the centuries, through the good times and even more the cataclysms that have shaken the world, a violin (provided it survives intact) gathers a past, accruing stories—some even true—until it acquires an almost semi-mystical...

Generations of violinists have tried to discover what it was that made Paganini so legendary. In this article from 2014, the late great Ruggiero Ricci shared his thoughts with Strad readers Was Paganini’s renowned virtuosity the result of a carefully...