A Viola by Andranik Gaybaryan, Northampton 2009

This viola by Andranik Gaybaryan, made in Northampton in 2009, reflects a maker whose work is rooted in serious performance training and refined through high-level restoration practice. Gaybaryan began playing violin at age six and pursued violin performance at the Rachmaninov Conservatory of Music in Rostov, Russia, earning an Artist Diploma. In parallel, he studied violin making with leading Russian luthiers including Araik Resyan, Yuri Pochekin, and Vyacheslav Suprun.

Following his graduation, Gaybaryan was invited to head the restoration department at the Rachmaninov Conservatory, while also teaching courses on the history of violin making at the Conservatory and the Rostov-on-Don Art College. From the outset, his making was shaped in dialogue with top musicians: early instruments were praised by artists such as Zakhar Bron, Sergey Sapozhnikov, and Sergey Kravchenko, among others.

In 2002, Gaybaryan relocated to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he deepened his study of the great classical masters and continued to refine his tonal concept in collaboration with world-class performers. He was invited in both 2008 and 2009 to serve as a violin repair master for the Marlboro Music Festival.

Today, Gaybaryan is widely recognized as one of the leading contemporary makers in the United States, and his instruments are in the hands of prominent players including Gil Shaham, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Oleh Krysa, Vera Beths, as well as musicians affiliated with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Juilliard School, the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and the Moscow Conservatory.

Offered here as a 2009 Northampton viola, this instrument benefits from the central advantage of fine contemporary making: modern structural confidence paired with a tonal concept shaped by direct, professional-level feedback. For the musician seeking a serious modern viola, Gaybaryan’s work offers a persuasive propositioncontemporary in its reliability, classical in its discipline, and built to be a long-term partner onstage and in the studio.