Huang Sheng-yan, a musician and instrument maker, is making his contribution to social welfare by teaching unemployed people to craft violins.

Huang went to Japan to study music over a decade ago, graduating from the Senzoku University of Music with a master’s degree. While in Japan, as he was walking the streets of Tokyo one day searching for a craftsman to repair the broken back of the violin purchased by his father with his meager pension, he ran into a master violin maker, a professor who was touched by Huang’s efforts to get the instrument fixed, as well as his obvious feelings for his father. The professor agreed on the spot to teach him violin making. So it was that Huang entered the world of the luthier.

After completing his studies and returning to Taiwan, Huang mostly stayed in the north, pursuing a performing career, teaching music and repairing violins. Later, he and his wife Wu Yu-hsian would travel to his old home in Nantou County on summer breaks to teach violin there. His low rates attracted many students, but violins were prohibitively expensive, and not every household was able to purchase one.

He had many chats with his friend Lian Hsiu-hua about this, and the pair believed it would be a good idea to open up a workshop to teach unemployed people a new trade making violins. In that way, more people who loved music would have the means to buy their own instruments.

He began offering classes in July of this year, and the response was overwhelming. Within just a few short days, all the spots were taken. Now, at the six-month mark, the students have learned about the selection of wood, surfacing, making backs, sideboards, scrollboxes, necks and fingerboards, tuning, inlays, bridges, soundposts, labels, varnish and processes including carving and planing.

Huang’s enthusiasm for his craft has easily dispelled the aura of mystery these things held for the students when they began, and they are no longer strangers to the process.

Chang Yu-chi, a student in the class, said during the last six months, Huang also has taught basic violin technique, and the sounds of the notes trickling out of his instrument transformed the long and arduous process of learning into a pleasure. Huang said he always had musical ambitions, and he hopes that all those who love music will be able to perform on their own handmade violin; doing this is a step towards that end, making the hard work worthwhile.

(This article first appeared in the “Liberty Times” Dec. 23, 2009.)

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