Strings contributor Laurence Vittes delivers his fifth and final blog from the Montreal Violin Competition. http://bit.ly/14KHTPD

And the winner is . . . . Laurence Vittes reports on the results of the Montreal Violin Competition. http://bit.ly/13pUxRF

Strings contributor Laurence Vittes is blogging this week from the Montreal Violin Competition:

Of the three finalists who played Tuesday night at the Montreal Violin Competition, Belgium’s Marc Bouchkov, 22 years old, born into a distinguished family of Russian and Ukrainian musicians, emerged as the apparent winner. He was a student of Boris Garlitsky and Claire…

View the first two episodes of Casey Driessen’s innovative Fiddle/Sticks project. Fiddle/Sticks is a collaborative exploration of rhythm that pairs this Grammy-nominated fiddler—a leading voice in percussive fiddle/violin technique (known as the chop)—with a list of the landmark drummers and percussionists of our time.

It serves as an inspirational and instructional resource for drummers, percussionists, fiddlers and everyone in the music community interested in pushing the boundaries…

Strings contributor and blogger Laurence Vittes is reporting this week from the Montreal Violin Competition:

After the midnight Saturday announcement of the six finalists in the Montreal International Music Competition (MIMC), devoted this year to the violin, the survivors were given three days in which to practice and rehearse for their trials by concerto on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

 The…

Strings corresponding editor James N. McKean writes:

Before I begin work on the rib structure, I join the top and the back. I want to let the joint rest before subjecting the plates to the stress of arching and graduating, but I'll also be using the back as a leveling plate to build the ribs on.

After I’ve run the two parts of the back through the joiner planer to level and roughly join them, I finish the joint with a beautiful old jack plane that my parents found for…