JAVS Spring 2007

IIZUKA

By Eric Chapman

Inspiration struck in 1971 when Iizuka visited Soroku Murata, a well-known luthier in Tokyo. Murata reluctantly accepted him as an apprentice despite his "advanced" age of 26. At first the concentration was on guitars, bur like many before him the lure of the classical violin world prevailed. After two additional years with Murata, Iizuka was on his way to Mirrenwald, Germany, the sire of one of the leading schools ofviolin making in the world and the resi dence of Joseph Kanruscher, one of Europe's leading teachers. It was

fizuka has created 280 instruments ro dare. Violas, which account for 170, dominate the landscape. The distribution ofvarious models seems to indicate distinct player preferences. lbirty are what lizuka refers to as his "Rubenesque" form, a model based on the traditional designs, bur with shorter corners, some asymmetry to enhance playability and a "buns" bonom which indents the lower bout and thereby shortens the body length for the player. Conventional model violas, which account for forty-two of the maker's total pro duction, made in a wide range of body lengths, rend to be popular with ord1estra players. They blend in with the landscape and keep "uninformed" conductors happy. Clearly however, rhe name lizuka has become nearly synonymous wirh the viola d'amore style viola. Ninery-eighr of these instruments are now in use and according ro the maker, there is a distinct pref erence for this configuration among chamber music players and soloists. The evolution of this model is per haps a story in itself Like so many creative lumiers, Iizuka has devot ed countless hours of thought ro creating viola models that would be user friendly and tonally dis tinctive. The original idea of cur away shoulders evolved from early training in guitarmaking, which required easy access to the upper

Hiroshi lizuka, born in Maebashi, Japan in 1945, is a maker whose instruments would appear at the top of virtually every violist's wish list. If you were to commission a viola from lizuka you would be in the company of many of the finest contemporary musicians including Michael Tree of the Guarneri Quarter; Jeffrey Irvine, Viola Professor at Cleveland Institute of Music; and the great Emanuel Vardi, the only violist ro record all 24 Paganini Caprices.

Michael Tree with his lizuka.

under the tutelage of Kanruscher that Tschu Ho Lee, the subject of an earlier article in this Journal, received his Masters diploma. The opportunity ro work with such an exacting taskmaster paved the road ro success for Iizuka as well.

Like so many fine luthiers, lizuka's roure to viola heaven was some what unusual. Would one ever suspect that such a maker had been a gymnast and a former pro gram director of a YMCA?

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