JAVS Summer 1998

28

Dalton: I ponder the initial risk in your going about building this school. As the university administrator asked, "Show me the other vio lin making schools in the country!" This was a considerable undertaking which has ex panded into not a small enterprise. As you review your professional career, including al most thirty years of the school's history, what aspect of your activity has brought you the most satisfaction? As a builder (because you are a fine builder), as a repairman (because you have done a good deal of that), or as the head of a violin-making school? If you had to take one of those things with you and leave the other two behind, what would you choose? Prier: I have thought about this quite often. We must remind ourselves that Stadivari made new violins. Violin-making gives us the opportunity to perpetuate ourselves. When I am gone, my instruments will remain. There

Prier: Yes, my oldest son, Martin, for in stance. He is a computer wizard and is our business analyst. My youngest son, Daniel, is enrolled in the Violin Making School right now. Dalton: Yours is certainly in the venerable and revered European tradition of family craftsmanship, business, and enterprise. But that is understandable considering your heri tage. You must see yourself at some time pass ing on. Will your school then come under some other management? Do you have a plan for its continuance? Prier: I do have a plan for the future, which I can't discuss right now, because I don't know if it's going work. Nevertheless, in the next two years we would like to start a bow making school. Ben Rolland mentioned to me he would move to Salt Lake and would be delighted to run it.

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