JAVS Summer 1998

19

THE VIOLIN MAKING SCHOOL OF AMERICA An Interview with Peter Paul Prier, founder, by DavidDalton, Editor, JAVS

Dalton: To talk about the beginning of your violin-making school in Salt Lake Ciry, I sup pose we should go back ro your own origins to understand what led you ro irs founding. Please speak abour your European , and specifically German, heritage. Prier: I was born in Neumarkr, Silesian, now Poland, acrual ly very close ro Breslau. In 1945 when the Russians were advancing, my mother in her wisdom decided we had berrer leave. Right then! Within ten minutes we were gone, on our way ro the Wesr. We trav eled from one serdemem and ciry ro the nexr-abour a dozen in all- she doing knirring and trying ro keep three lirrle children alive. Ir had ro be her responsibiliry as my father was in the Wehrmacht, bur had already been killed, although we didn't know it ar the time of our leaving. Prier: o, he had been on the western from in France. The official documem indi cates rhar his company retreated several times over the Rhine umil they carne ro a small rown, Ebermansradr, in the Rhone mounrains. His dury was ro give the command ro disperse from the emrance of a hotel during an air raid when someone shot him. So he was killed in the act of doing a good deed. Father played the violin. And my grandfather, also in the German army, became a prisoner of war of the American forces. He was very handy ar making metal cups and cans relating ro rhe war effort, though he was a jeweler by trade. H e received a job working for the Americans near an air base in chweinfurr. That's where my family and I lived for four years. Eventually we moved to Aschaffenburg, and from there I was able ro go ro the Youth Dalton : Was your father on the Russ ian from?

Conservarory in Munich. I was a good enough violi n player that they allowed me ro enroll, but the rigor of ir all was roo much for me, and I lefr afrer ten months at age fourteen. On the way home, I bought a barrery operared radio for rwelve marks. I remember sirring in rhe train , and turning on the radio, when ir was announced rhar a special program about a violin-making school in some Ge rma n c iry would be broadcasr. Afrer listen ing ro rhe program for about a half hour, I was so excited that I wanted ro become a creator of insrrumems. My thinking at the time was thar I could keep on playing the violin, bur berrer still , I cou ld learn ro make violins. Dalton: I'm purring the srory rogether ahead of you, I realize. So you were inspired ro go ro Mirrenwald and enter rhe violin-making school there? Prier: Exactly. I was almost fifteen and my mother set up an appointment with the direc ror. There were forry applicants and three of them were accepted. I was the last one ro ar rive, and I was the last one taken, not because I scored higher on the entrance rest, bur be cause I was a berrer violinisr. Immediately I had a position in the school orchestra, which roured Ausrria, Switzerland, and Greece. It was known as one of the berrer youth orchestras in Bavaria. I was enrolled in the Mirrenwald violin maki ng school for three and one-half years when I was given a luthier diploma, a gesellen pritfong. Actually, I remained there fo r over four years while I wai ted for my visa ro arrive so that I could leave Germany. Germany was not the place ro be at the rime, I thought, because there were al ready abour three hun dred active violin makers. I didn't have the