- Editor’s
Note:
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- This
column is a regular feature in the Wayback Times in which my
husband takes interesting people out to lunch … and sends
me the bill.
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- (It's
a tough job, but someone has to do it!)
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- Send
us an e-mail if you have someone in mind for one of Peter Neilly's
interviews over lunch.
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- Peter Neilly is Out
to Lunch
- Breaking bread with
interesting people
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- Out to Lunch!
- with Peter Neilly
- Today’s
Out To Lunch guest is Springbrook’s Luke Mercier.
Luke, among other things, is a highly skilled luthier and until
I had heard about Luke, I had no idea what a luthier was. A luthier
is a highly trained and skilled craftsman who makes stringed
instruments, such as violins and guitars. Before meeting Luke,
I had pictured him in my mind to be an old world type senior
citizen, mainly because of his occupation. At only 38, he is
far from that. We are meeting for lunch at Jimmy’s in Stirling,
Ontario, and will then travel to Luke’s shop in Springbrook.
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- Peter: As far as I can remember,
there have never been college or university courses on how to
be trained as a luthier. How did you get started in this profession?
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- Luke: There are some violin
making schools out there, but I got started in kind of a fluky
way. I had originally wanted to learn how to build a harpsichord,
partly I guess because of my keyboard background. But I had just
borrowed a violin from my high school after my final semester
and was taking it home to learn how to play it. A friend who
was walking with me at the time suggested it might be more practical
to learn how to make violins instead of harpsichords. I looked
inside the violin I had borrowed and saw a label that read distributed
by Geo. Heinl & Co. Ltd. of Toronto. George Heinl is a fourth
generation business and they are the foremost violin experts
in Canada. They are respected worldwide. I called them and an
interview was set up.
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- Peter: So they hired you without
any experience?
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- Luke: A violin house would
rather hire individuals without prior training. They prefer to
groom you through their own methods from the start. I did have
experience with tools from carpentry construction with my father
and I was lucky that an employee had just left Heinl a few months
before my interview. I worked there for just over 15 years.
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- Peter: Was it a little intimidating,
working for a company of that stature from the start? You must
have worked on some very valuable instruments.
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- Luke: They teach you to get
over your nerves quickly. The people I worked with there were
highly skilled craftsmen and you can’t help but learn from
them by just listening and watching what they do. You learn to
take your time and not rush into anything. There were some amazing
instruments that went through there. On my last day at Heinl,
I was given a “Bonjour” Stradivarius cello made in
1696 to work on. It was purchased at auction for around $6 million.
It is probably worth close to $8 million now.
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- Peter: I play guitar and I
can feel and hear the difference in quality between a basic guitar
and say a Martin. Is there that much difference with a Stradivarius
violin, or is it other influences like rarity or reputation that
make them so valuable? Are they that good?
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- Luke: Yes they are. And in
many cases, playing a Stradivarius is the final step for a very
gifted player with international status. They are that great.
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 Peter: You have an amazing
amount of unique tools, hundreds of clamps, gouges and chisels
in this shop. None of them looks like anything you could purchase
at Home Depot. Where did they come from?
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- Luke: I have collected them
over the past 20 years and some of them I had to make myself.
Many of the tools used in this trade are up to 300 years old.
Just as old as some of these violins.
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- Peter: You have an incredible
collection of restored violins for sale and are well known for
the violins and banjos you make yourself. How long does it take
you to make a violin?
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- Luke: It takes me about 200
hours to produce one of my hand-made violins. A fully fretted
banjo requires around 120 hours to construct.
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- Peter: Thanks for the tour
of your shop, Luke. You have an amazing talent. Keep up the good
work.
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- Luke Mercier
is not just a highly skilled luthier.
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- At 18, his solo
piano composition Five Meditations was premiered by Juno award-winning
recording artist Antonin Kubalek. Kubalek later stated
in a letter of recommendation dated Sept. 9, 1994: “I feel
this young composer is unusually gifted. My experience as a frequent
performer of contemporary Canadian compositions leaves me with
the whole hearted opinion that Luke Mercier is one of the most
promising musicians I have ever encountered.”
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- Like has composed
works for such artists as The Gryphon Trio, pianist Jamie
Parker and The Tokyo Quartets first violinist Martin Beaver.
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- Luke is also
a prominent member of the band Rolling River. They specialize
in playing traditional Appalachian string band music.
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- Luke is a very
talented musician, composer and performer as well as an extremely
gifted and well skilled luthier. His website also features examples
of his music that can be sampled and downloaded.
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- Well worth a
visit at lukemercier.com or call Luke Mercier
Handmade Violins and Banjos at 613-395-2841.
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- The website
also offers violins, violas and banjos for sale in price ranges
from under $1,000 to over $15,000.
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