“As temperatures plummeted across Texas this week, a local violinist began sleeping with his instrument,” writes Tim Diovanni in Friday’s (2/19) Dallas Morning News. “Aaron Boyd, director of chamber music at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts, spent a few nights snuggling up with his 5-year-old son, Yuki, and his violin, which was nestled in its case, under many blankets. It was made in Venice in 1690…. Boyd … didn’t have power for most of Monday and Tuesday. Though he doesn’t think his ‘old Italian masterpiece’ would have cracked when the temperature at his home in Plano dropped into the 40s, he ‘would never want to test it,’ he says. ‘Because once it’s cracked, you have to have it fixed. And it’s never quite the same afterward.’ … Its creator, Matteo Goffriller, was the father of the ‘Venetian School’ of luthiers…. Boyd usually brings his violin to luthiers in New York City for basic maintenance. Although he’s been unable to fly there during the pandemic, he still cleans his instrument ‘maniacally’ and focuses on keeping its temperature and humidity levels stable. ‘That’s how I ended up with a violin in bed,’ he says with a laugh.”
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