Reader’s Diary

John Marchese

Sam Zygmuntowicz is a Brooklyn violin builder who says he is “no Gepetto”.  This book is about him, about violin making, and, specifically, about the building of a new violin for Gene Drucker of the Emerson Quartet.  It’s an interesting look at a a technology that depends not on innovation but on the perfection of craft.  For Zygmuntowicz, part of the fascination of that craft is the question of “what do we really know” and the secret of Stradavari violins is that there is no secret: he was simply the best luthier – the best craftsman – of his day.