Peter Purich is an innovative violin maker known for his unique personalized chinrest design. He’s also a multi-instrumentalist who plays in many different styles, and a dedicated violin and viola pedagogue. Because this conversation was extra-long it has been divided into two episodes. Part 1 delves into his development as an instrument maker and innovator, and as a creative musician. He shows and describes some of his innovations with chinrest design. The episode ends with some improvisation and some great parenting advice! Part 2 will continue with a lot of specifics about playing and teaching the violin, and he shows some of his inventive instrument designs, his unique shoulder support, and some great wisdom.

I have added timestamps below, and like all these episodes this is available both as a podcast and a video, and the transcript will be published to this same link: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/peter-purich

Please support this podcast: https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(01:29) Peter’s father and his start making instruments and bows

(06:12) Peter’s trip to Europe, Vienna Philharmonic instruments

(10:17) different kinds of woods, styles of violin bows

(13:44) research on carbon fiber

(19:25) Peter’s custom-made chin rests, vibrato, shifting, how to hold a violin

(46:34) Peter’s pedagogy

(49:30) Peter’s approach to improvisation and experiences with different styles and instruments

(51:30) I Musici chamber orchestra in Montreal, Yuli Turovsky

(54:30) Arthur Garami

(56:27) Gerald Stanick

(57:44) why it’s good to improvise with demonstrations

(01:09:36) teaching students improvisation

(01:11:59) parenting and Peter’s great advice