Where to begin?
Geary Baese is an exceptional violin maker and researcher. He is also an orchid collector and grower, a vintage steam automobile enthusiast, a builder of wonderful model airplanes and a designer of his own home-brew radio circuits. He was previously employed as a silver and goldsmith, a cabinet maker and is an all round master craftsman. He is also an authorative, intelligent, thoughtful and gifted teacher who offers inspiration and enthusiasm as well as method, and insight. Lovers of the violin are fortunate that he cast his eye in the direction of Cremona. I believe his work may be as important to present and upcoming generations of violin makers as Andrea Amati was to the legacy of the great Cremonese makers.
My violins are entirely made following the method taught by Geary, the method that was invented by Andrea Amati in the sixteenth Century and which served the great Cremonese masters for over two hundred years. This ‘Cremonese method’ results in instruments which are radically better than anything I was capable of making before studying with Geary.
After years of producing ‘hit and miss’ dimensional copies that sometimes worked reasonably well, I now have the opportunity to repeatedly create instruments possessing tonal sonority, clarity, a wide range of expressive colour and a full dynamic range.
Cheers Geary!