St. Louis Violin Shops

7 November 2006
On Monday 16 Oct I went to St. Louis to visit four violin shops en route to Springfield, IL for IL Symphony. I stayed with friends in Fenton, Ron & Debbie Box, overnight on Mon. Monday I visited only one shop - Geoff Seitz Violin Shop, at this location 20 years. He has 3 store-fronts side by side, all connected into one big shop, next to a hair place on one side and insurance or something on the other side, in a mostly residential neighborhood of small brick homes. This is a lower middle class neighborhood with a very unique violin shop right in the middle of it all. First impressions of Seitz and his shop were - wow-violins everywhere. The walls are lined with them in various stages of repair, and there are boxes and piles of junk violins. Apparently he works on school instruments… He has several basses as well, one on a table with the top off being worked on. This place has a lot of character. I’m having Seitz touch up a couple spots on my fine viola and rehair two bows, and I‘m trying out his violins - especially the one he made. I want a better violin - a new one, so I’m visiting violin makers. Geoff was an apprentice to a violin maker in Washington state and eventually started his own shop and moved back home to St. Louis more than 20 years ago. I like his style and personality. His violins have an interesting inlaid design in the upper area on the back below the shoulders. At the end of the week when I picked up my stuff on Sunday around noon, I met Geoff’s wife and dog. Since they aren’t open on Sunday, they just came in to meet me. Sweet dog! This couple is around my age and seem like former hippies, but I could be wrong on that point.

After my first visit on Monday I went from Geoff’s shop to Fenton, but had a few hours before Ron & Debbie would be home from work. I had to practice my IL Symphony music anyway, so I found a church and asked permission to practice there. It’s a big church which Ron had pointed out to me in the past - it is where Joyce Meyer attends when she is home. I practiced my 2nd violin parts for R. Strauss “Rosencavalier” and “Till Eulenspiegel” - very tough. Then I went to Ron’s house about 6:00. We went out to eat and had a nice visit. Ron & Debbie are both teachers. They had to get up & out early Tues. I woke up early as well and practiced in the basement while Ron watched the news. I kept practicing after they left, took a shower and headed out to meet more violin makers. En route from Fenton up I-44, I got off at exit 282 - Big Bend Road, and right there was “Music Folk.” I had been there a couple times before - very cool place. I looked around at the huge selection of guitars, fiddles, harps, banjos… I saw a nice little selection of ukuleles - and bought one. I am under the recent influence of hearing Jake Shimabukuro on the radio and then ordered his CD, “Gently Weeps.” He is the best ukulele player! Onward up Big Bend to Clayton just up the street from Washington Park, near Washington U. is Clemens Violin Shop. I got there at about opening time. His shop was originally a big brick home. This whole area is rather up-scale in the heart of St. Louis near Washington Park. I heard about Clemens from Nathan Banks, a violinist in IL Symphony who has a Clemens violin. I had called Nathan for advice about where to go in St. Louis for violins. Robert Clemens came to the door. He is pretty young - maybe mid 30’s. His shop is real classy! Unlike Seitz’s shop, one cannot see Clemens’s work area. One enters into the instrument display room. Who knows what’s beyond those carved wooden doors to the rest of the house. On display are about 50 violins hanging in a glass cabinet - the more common instruments that were traded in. On one end of the room is a big, lovely string bass, the only one Clemens has made or will ever again make. Under the glass counter top are a few of the most valuable instruments, most made by Clemens himself. I tried 3 of these: 2 by Clemens, 1 by his teacher. Clemens is very personable and polished. He told about some of the renowned violinists who have bought his violins - very good stories. Of course the proof is in the pudding - I played his violins and was very impressed. Especially the 3rd one - one that he had built in 1999, which was played by John McGrosso of the Ariana String Quartet for five years. McGrosso exchanged it for a different Clemens violin. I think this will be my violin maker, but still am reserving judgment until I have met a few more. As I was leaving the shop, Robert opened a cabinet to withdraw a CD of the Ariana Quartet, picturing the players including John McGrosso holding the violin I had just played, and gave the CD to me. He also gave me a 2006 calendar with gorgeous pictures of some of his violins, violas and cellos. I have listened to the CD a lot in my car - Debussy and Beethoven quartets.

Next on my list was Dan Terry. He works out of his home. He was a little hard to contact and a little hard to convince I was interested in seeing his violins. He only had one available to show. I tried it…not so impressed.

Next I went to Gene Bearden Violin Shop. This is a very established and famous violin making family. Gene is quite old and has slowed down considerably. His son Greg is taking over the business. They had nothing to show me. They do mostly restorations now. It was very interesting to hear Gene talk about the old days playing violin in Springfield (IL) Symphony in the 1950’s and in St. Louis Symphony before it became a major orchestra. Gene is a tall, skinny, white-haired, well-dressed, elderly man. Though I liked visiting and hearing his stories, I was not impressed by the ‘mystique’ he seemed to be trying to evoke. There was an aloofness in this shop which turned me off quite quickly. Finally I met Greg and discussed the possibility of my buying a Bearden violin. He seemed nervous and anxious to get back to work, and had nothing to show me. I wouldn’t consider having a violin built if I had never tried an example of the maker’s work. He could see my point and suggested I go to Chicago to the violin making school where he (and Robert Clemens as well) had studied. There I can see examples of many makers all in one place. Good idea. So I’ll do that next chance I get which will be in April.

Thus ends my violin shopping. I headed up towards Springfield, IL. Right in my path was Alton, IL. I stopped there to try a restaurant that Mark Rogers had mentioned a long time ago - Fast Eddie’s. It is basically a big bar. I got there about 2:45, and they open at 2:00. There were many people there, but it wasn’t crowded. I have heard from more than one source that this place gets very crowded. The food was cheap and very good. The sound system was too loud. I took a table with an outlet for my laptop. I didn’t stay too long. The place has character, but it’s not my style.

The rest of the week was spent with Kregg E. Argenta and the IL Symphony. I always stay with Kregg, which makes IL Symphony seem almost incidental. My time is focused on practicing the music for the concerts that week, but one can’t practice all the time, so I also end up reading a book from Kregg’s library (last two times it was Treasure Island,) fiddling with our friend Jim, going out to eat, finding special events for Saturday. We have in the past gone over to Indiana to meet Peggy at a covered bridge festival, visited Lincoln memorial sites, fairs, festivals, parks, antique shop, exercise at health club, etc… We always go to Kregg’s parents house on Saturday around noon for their regular family lunch meeting. This time it was to celebrate his mom Janet’s birthday. So it’s like a mini-vacation, and the orchestra concerts are really fun, though hard work. This time our big pieces were Richard Strauss “Till Eulenspiegal” and “Rosenkavalier.” Anything by Strauss is bound to be very challenging. There were also several short opera excerpts. The soloists were 3 sopranos.

At the end of the week I had to pick up my viola and bows in St. Louis, so I stayed over at Kregg’s on Saturday night and left early Sunday to go to church in St. Louis before going to Seitz Violin Shop and heading home. I went to the Vineyard Church in Clayton, just 3 blocks from Clemens Violin Shop. They meet in a movie theater. Then it was another 20 minutes south to meet Seitz. I got my viola and bows, and left him my violin to have the fingerboard dressed (it gets grooves in it from years of pressing the fingers down on the same spots millions of times.) He said it would take a couple weeks. 10 days later I was in the area in my truck, so I called to see of the violin was done. It was, so on a Thursday morning I parked in front of Seitz’s shop in my bobtail (that means truck w/out a trailer attached.) Geoff did a wonderful job on my violin. It looks like a different instrument. He polished it with special stuff only violin makers have, and he fitted new tuning pegs. It almost made me cry to see this transformed violin. When I walked in, Mark, who works there with Geoff, was working on a violin and playing it - wow he’s good. He’s a champion fiddler. He was playing some old time fiddle tune in a very cool style. Geoff is supposed to be very good as well, but I haven’t heard him play yet… He said he knows Tim Stokes, 95-yr-old fiddler from my neck of the woods, from playing at the same contests. Ed Fravel, who regularly plays guitar with Tim, has backed Geoff up in contests as well. I like this shop.