“I have had the pleasure of seeing, playing and hearing several instruments made by the violin maker Boris Odio de Granda. His instruments are simply some of the best new instruments I have played- powerful, but also full of color and subtlety, and very responsive and easy to play. He is a master craftsman, and his instruments are visually beautiful as well. Definitely one of the top instrument makers around today.

– Philip Setzer / Violinist, The Emerson String Quartet

This is new? It sounds like it has already been played in. What an amazing tone, and beautiful finish. Really first class. I’m impressed by the mature sound and projection quality.

– Ricardo Cyncynates / Assistant Concertmaster, The National Symphony

You’ve really captured the arching. And the varnish. Those are two important things most modern makers miss. This is an impressive instrument.

– Ruggiero Ricci / Soloist

Meet Boris

Graduate, and Former Instructor:

The Violin Making School of America, Salt Lake City, UT

Member:

Boris Odio de Granda grew up backstage at Severance Hall, home of The Cleveland Orchestra, his father Alvaro serving as Assistant Concertmaster for most of his four-decades with the acclaimed ensemble. But it wasn’t until he was an adult did Boris fully comprehend the depth of talent and culture in which he had been steeped as a child.

Naturally Boris took violin lessons as a youth, but not demonstrating the prodigious talent of his virtuosic father, after several years his interest waned and would not be re-discovered until later in life and from a new perspective- conceiving the intersection of fine arts and music.

Following a University BFA degree and a decade spent as a professional Visual Artist, Boris eventually came to view the violin as a masterwork example of Fine Art, a highly detailed exercise in aesthetic, creative, and functional construction. Already deeply interested in many violin-related topics /physics, aesthetics, culture, history, music/ he pursued his passion and was accepted into The Violin Making School of America in Salt Lake City, under tutelage of the esteemed Peter Prier. Drawing upon his well-established artistic proficiency, technical skills, and meticulous brushwork he excelled in the program, and subsequently was invited to join the faculty and lead the varnish program… while still a student. Exclusively using traditional ingredients and methods, and instructing from an alchemically purist’s perspective, in turn Boris was invited to speak at the Vernix 2000 International Varnish Symposium in San Juan, Puerto Rico to share his developmental research. After formally graduating and earning the degree of Luthier, plus several further rewarding years of teaching, he ultimately relocated to Southern California to open a private atelier and focus on custom-building fine concert instruments, as well as arrange private sales of vintage master works.

During these past two decades Boris has worked with numerous high-caliber musicians, been highlighted in various print and film media, interviewed on classical music radio, delivered numerous educational lectures from conservatory to boardroom, and accepted an Award for Tone from the Violin Society of America’s International Making Competition. Furthermore, The Boris Violins Studio was featured in the March 2009 issue of The Strad (the preeminent British publication devoted to the classical strings trade), and in 2010 he was invited by The Violin Making School of America to return to his alma mater as Honorary Guest Examiner and deliver their graduation commencement address.

Through his years of sculpting sound (abstractly conceptualizing a desired timbre, visualizing the complex dimensional shape of inner volume/air to generate that tone color, then wrapping the precise thickness of organic material around that capacity in order to amplify its voice) Boris has developed an empirical perception of the myriad of intricate balances comprising the violin, perceiving how they tonally correspond with its physical form, and understanding how to manipulate various resonant qualities by adjusting specific equilibriums. …The object, simply is, harmony.

“The Violin is the quintessential epitome of Renaissance engineering, if not the only remaining example of sophisticated technology not to be improved upon in four hundred years. And, as formed/created merely by precise rearrangement of nature, an enduring quintessential example of true alchemy.”