viola

In 2008, a private individual donated two violas and two viola bows to the Musical Instrument Fund. The son of the now-deceased donor told us that his father had purchased this viola in Brazil in 1967, but due to the absence of a label inside the instrument or any other documentation, it remained unclear who had built it.

Frits Schutte, Head of Collections, discovered this by chance a few years later:
“During one of my daily train rides from Schagen to the office in Amsterdam, I took *The Strad* magazine out of my bag and opened it to the index page. My eye was immediately drawn to a photo of a distinctive violin scroll. I followed the reference to the article and found a detailed discussion of the Italian influence on the Brazilian violin-making tradition. That in itself was very interesting to read. But the best part came when I read about the most influential violin maker mentioned in the article: Guido Pascoli.

Thanks to the information—and especially the printed photos—it was easy for me to conclude that our viola, which for nine years had been described as an “anonymous Art Deco-style viola,” must have been built by this Guido Pascoli. Once back at the office, I immediately looked up the contact information for the article’s authors, which led to an enthusiastic exchange of letters and, indeed, the confirmation that this Guido Pascoliviola of a unique model that he built in the 1960s, inspired by the work of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. We now have a certificate of authenticity from these experts.”