Contributors

This month's writers for The Strad

Soundpost

Letters, emails, online comments

OBITUARIES

RONALD MASIN Dutch violinist Ronald Rudolf Masin died

My Space

Jordan Lambert’s Tahiti workshop

String Courses 2026: Cover

INTERNATIONAL COURSES FOR STRING PLAYERS AND MAKERS

Contents

What's in the January issue

On The Beat: News And Analysis

News and events from around the world

On The Beat: Competitions

Awards news from around the world

New Products

The latest items for string players

Auction Report

News from the London autumn sales

Life Lessons

The memories and opinions of Scottish cellist Alasdair Tait

Opinion

The importance of creating a musical environment for pupils from their earliest years

Postcard from Munich

A report from the Hindemith International Viola Competition

Stella Chen

The US violinist, winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2019, tells Rebecca Franks about her latest album of Beethoven and Barber concertos

The Lakatos dynasty

The Roma tradition of playing has been popular since its 19th-century heyday. Erika Nyerges explores the genre through one of its key exponents, Sándor Lakatos

Iberian lutherie guilds

Pablo Soriano sifts through inventories and ordinances from the 15th to the 18th centuries to discover what they tell us about the lives of instrument makers

Paganini Quartet

Formed in 1946 by Robert Maas and Henri Temianka, the US-based quartet disbanded 20 years later. Tully Potter looks at the group’s short but sweet lifespan

Session Report

Violinist Ning Feng tells Harry White about his latest album of concertos by Brahms and his near contemporary, Hungarian composer Karl Goldmark

Arching constructions

Sebastian Gonzalez demonstrates a geometrical method for describing an instrument’s archings, and how it relates to a selection of Cremonese violins

In Focus

A violin by Carl Nicolaus Sawicki

Trade Secrets

Hugh Withycombe’s new design for a ‘very deep clamp’ for cello making

Making Matters

The design and development of a new ergonomic kind of viola

Masterclass

Lena Neudauer on the first movement of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata no.1

SONATE

Technique

Gaelen McCormick discusses teaching spiccato on the double bass

Reviews: Concerts

A critical round-up of performances

Editor’s Letter

By Emma Baker

String Courses 2026: Contents

◆ Courses and events are listed according to

Reviews: Recordings

The latest physical and digital recordings

Reviews: Books

Publications of interest to the string music world

From The Archive

From January 1896

IN THE NEXT ISSUE

Nicolò Amati cello 1646 One of only seven

Sentimental Work

Timothy Ridout on his love for Brahms’s Viola Sonata no.2 in E major

String Courses 2026: Guide to Courses

Before you start combing through the string courses listed in this guide, take a look at these suggestions to help find the course that’s right for you

String Courses 2026: Checklist

WHY DO YOU WANT TO GO ON A

String Courses 2026: Courses for Players & Teachers

PLAYERS KEY Instruments vn violin va viola

String Courses 2026: Courses for Makers

Making a viola da gamba at West Dean

String Courses 2026: Listings Index

A Aboyne Cello Festival Summer School .....22 Academia