Photo by Jana Goldman
Occasionally
NOAA employees in Silver Spring, Maryland hear lilting sounds coming
from the stairwells during lunch hour. The sounds are those of a violin,
and the violinist is John Schmidt, who runs the Research Associates
Programs of NOAA Research's National Research Council.
John has degrees in physics and psychology and attracts post-doctoral
researchers to NOAA labs from around the world. But his heart is also
in violins. Not just playing them but making them. John has been creating
and testing his violins of Norway spruce since the early 1980s. As for
the stairwell sounds, John explains that NOAA's building is 15 stories
high and the stairwells are all concrete. "The acoustics are great,"
he said.
In February, the Baltimore Sun called John a "renaissance man." His
penchant for making violins started when his two daughters began taking
lessons. He borrowed a library book about violin-making, spotted a picture
of a box fiddle, crafted his own, and became hooked. He found the tone
captivating.
John has since made over 10 violins in his basement workshop. Each violin
takes over 100 hours, sometimes twice that time, to complete. He longs
for violinists to play his creations, to test all the aspects he so
painstakingly plans and develops. As John explained to the Baltimore
Sun, making violins has diverse appeal. "There's the artistic aspect
and the historical aspect. Mathematics is involved, and the physics
of sound. In the varnish, you've got chemistry."
Right now his granddaughters are John's prime audience. But John dreams
of creating a musical masterpiece solid enough for a pro to use as his
main instrument. "I'm holding onto this dream," he said.
