March 3, 2015, Yesterday Joshua Bell came to Amelia Island for the Amelia Island chamber festival. It was fantastic. He played a full two hours including a set of encores from his Romance of the violin CD. Everyone was ecstatic. The venue was the plantation chapel and it was sold out, packed, no room in the Inn. I was honored to sit in the second row as a guest of Bob and Pat Henderson in thanks for my presentation and performance on violin making earlier this month.

Today, Bob Lavine called me up in ecstatic revelry from glowing from the wonderful concert with Joshua Bell. He asked if he could come over and see my violin shop. He came over and played a couple of instruments and then we broke out some duet music and we spontaneous played several duets together.

It was such a fitting conclusion To Joshua Bell’s fabulous performance that Bob and I played together through several duets. What a wonderful lifetime opportunity to handcraft violins and then have someone come over and play them together after such a fabulous concert with Joshua Bell. Making music both with tools and a bow. I’m in bliss.