A company in Germany has created a violin using a laser printer that's designed to be ergonomically and acoustically comparable to a traditional. Watch it in action.

Chicago violin shop owner Chunyee Lu is suing an anonymous commenter who posted negative reviews of his shop on consumer sites like Yelp.com, Citysearch.com, and Kudzu.com.

Owned by conductor Lorin Maazel for 66 years, the violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini has been featured in a number of his recordings and in concerts.

The spiritual offspring of Anne-Sophie Mutter, today's most prominent violinists are, on the whole, female, ultra-virtuosic, career-focused and glamorous looking besides. Here are five standout recordings, plus a free download of violinist Tianwa Yang.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has 5,085 musical instruments in its collection. The fact that they are rarely played illustrates an ongoing debate about the purpose of musical instruments in museums and the value of performance.

British violinist Daniel Hope has performed with the world's major orchestras and conductors, but these days he's got his mind on Joseph Joachim, the violinist he calls "perhaps the greatest of the 19th century." Here are Hope's Top Five violin pieces.

German violinist Christian Tetzlaff chats with Jeff Spurgeon about his new Carnegie Hall Perspectives series, about his modern violin and his surprising tastes in pop music.

Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers has purchased a 1697 Stradivarius for $3.6 million, the highest price on record for any musical instrument sold at auction. She explains why it was love at first sound.

Glenn Dicterow has been a concertmaster or associate concertmaster in major symphony orchestras for nearly forty years, thirty of which have been at the New York Philharmonic. He talks with Jeff Spurgeon about the job.

As our month-long ViolinFest proceeds on WQXR, I’ve been reading about the violin, and talking with some violinists and other violin experts. Curiously for me, though, learning about the violin has not made me interested in the slightest in learning to play the thing.  I say “curiously” because usually when I study something, I feel an urge, however small, to experience it. But for some reason, the violin hasn’t grabbed me in the least. It looks not only difficult to learn, but uncomfortable, too.  I love listening to it, and deeply admire the people who study it, play it expertly, and understand it.  But it’s not for me. 

If I were to study a string instrument, it would be the cello.  There’s something about its tone quality, its warmth, and the intimacy of holding it in an embrace – as opposed to tucking the violin under the chin, as if it were napkin – that draws me to it.  There’s nothing rational about any of this, of course. Speaking of irrational, I also have long had a desire to play the accordion. I love the sweet rusticity of the French bal-musette sound.  But the accordion instead of the violin – what’s wrong with me? Please don’t answer that, but do answer this: What musical instrument have you always wanted to play, and why?  If you’ve fulfilled your ambition, what was it like to meet the object of your musical desire?

This week's Full Rotation highlights "Seasons…dreams," violinist Anne Akiko Meyers's new collection of seasonal and dream-related pieces by Debussy, Faure, Wagner, Gershwin and others. To whet your appetite, WQXR offers a free download.

Does the secret to the pristine sound of an 18th century violin lie in the density of its wood? Probably not. But it's among the intriguing questions raised by a recent scientific study of the Vieuxtemps, an instrument described as the "Mona Lisa of violins."