William Atwood 16 1/16" viola, Opus 79, 2025, Bonny Doon, California | Metzler Violins
bold, bright, smooth
About the Instrument
This viola is lovely to play, with a bold sound that would blend well in a chamber group or symphony. Its single-piece maple back has a striking quilted flame figure, brought out by an amber varnish over a golden ground. The ribs, neck, and scroll are comprised of the same material.
Interior label reads: “William Atwood / Bonny Doon, California / Opus 79 Anno 2025”
Length: 408 mm (16 1/16”)
Upper Bouts: 195 mm
Middle: 135 mm
Lower Bouts: 244 mm
About the Maker
William Atwood (1948- ) is a contemporary Massachusetts-born luthier based outside of Santa Cruz, California. Atwood’s accountant father made French Provincial wood pieces in his spare time. Atwood began learning violin at the age of eight, and earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees in particle physics, eventually working full-time at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In the early 1980s, Atwood earned was a post-doctoral honoree in Europe, where he acquired aged wood to build stringed instruments. He built his first violin in 1983, with many more in the years since. His instruments are a marriage between his knowledge of physics and love of woodworking, which he learned from his father, including investigations of the physics of the violin—a topic upon which Atwood has published multiple academic articles. In 1996, Atwood apprenticed under Tom Croen. After his retirement from Stanford in 1999, Atwood made stringed instruments full-time until he began to teach at University of California at Santa Cruz. Upon retiring from that post in 2016, Atwood focused on instruments full-time, making over 70 violins and violas. His remarkable cache of wood includes spruces, maples, and pear woods from Bavaria, Switzerland, the Baltic region and the Pacific Northwest, with some approaching a century old.
https://atwoodsviolins.com/
http://instagram.com/atwoods_violins
Description
bold, bright, smooth
About the Instrument
This viola is lovely to play, with a bold sound that would blend well in a chamber group or symphony. Its single-piece maple back has a striking quilted flame figure, brought out by an amber varnish over a golden ground. The ribs, neck, and scroll are comprised of the same material.
Interior label reads: “William Atwood / Bonny Doon, California / Opus 79 Anno 2025”
Length: 408 mm (16 1/16”)
Upper Bouts: 195 mm
Middle: 135 mm
Lower Bouts: 244 mm
About the Maker
William Atwood (1948- ) is a contemporary Massachusetts-born luthier based outside of Santa Cruz, California. Atwood’s accountant father made French Provincial wood pieces in his spare time. Atwood began learning violin at the age of eight, and earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees in particle physics, eventually working full-time at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In the early 1980s, Atwood earned was a post-doctoral honoree in Europe, where he acquired aged wood to build stringed instruments. He built his first violin in 1983, with many more in the years since. His instruments are a marriage between his knowledge of physics and love of woodworking, which he learned from his father, including investigations of the physics of the violin—a topic upon which Atwood has published multiple academic articles. In 1996, Atwood apprenticed under Tom Croen. After his retirement from Stanford in 1999, Atwood made stringed instruments full-time until he began to teach at University of California at Santa Cruz. Upon retiring from that post in 2016, Atwood focused on instruments full-time, making over 70 violins and violas. His remarkable cache of wood includes spruces, maples, and pear woods from Bavaria, Switzerland, the Baltic region and the Pacific Northwest, with some approaching a century old.
https://atwoodsviolins.com/
http://instagram.com/atwoods_violins
