PORTLAND, Maine — Local Jonathan Cooper is one of only about a hundred violin makers in the U.S. who are considered "masters."
He's known not only for the sound of his instruments, but for craftsmanship as well.
Cooper, who's being honored next year with a special album featuring some of America's best fiddlers, spoke recently about what makes his violins so special.
"If I make a violin I start off with a concept of the instrument and I make every part of it from beginning to end and I present it to the musician, I hear the person play it, I know that violin," he says.
Cooper says that's the difference between a custom violin and an instrument — even a good one — that's made by a person in a factory.
"If you work in a factory, in a commercial entity, you never hear your violin, you have no idea," he says. "You're just given a set of numbers, you work according to that."
Cooper came to Maine from New York to go to school, and decided to make it home. He taught himself to play the fiddle and then decided to learn how to build them, earning a 3-year apprenticeship in Cremona, Italy: birthplace of the Stradivarius violin.
"Of all the places in the world to learn violin, that appealed to me the most," he says.
Today he operates from a second-floor workshop in downtown Portland, where he has an apprentice of his own: his son Seth, who on this day is sanding down a piece of spruce destined to become the front of a $15,000 fiddle. It's the end-result of a month's labor.
Over the past 35 years, Cooper has made more than 400 instruments, including cellos and violas. Most of them, he says, are made to order - designed with a client's particular needs in mind.
"When I talk with a musician I have a lot of questions I ask them about what kind of music they play, how much do they play, how much they travel, what conditions are they playing under, are they playing in an acoustic setting, are they using microphones, are they doing a lot of recording?" he says.
The answers affect parameters such as the curvature and thickness of the wood — a key factor, says Cooper, when considering how the instrument's going to sound.
Cooper says a lot thought goes into making the perfect fiddle.
"None of it's really rocket science in that sense, but it all fits together, you have to keep track of the whole thing while you're doing it," he says.
It's that attention to detail, and to the specific needs of the player, that has earned Cooper a growing clientele of devoted performers.
"I've watched him do so much for so many people and supply violin players and cellists with a voice," says Darol Anger, a world-renowned violinist who teamed up with mandolin player David Grisman in the 1970s and went on to co-found the groundbreaking chamber jazz group the Turtle Island String Quartet.
Six years ago Anger moved from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine, drawn here in large part, he says, by the presence of Jonathan Cooper.
"The reason I really love Jonathan Cooper violins and other instruments is kind of a three-pronged reason," Anger says. "The first of course is that they sound great. The second is that they are put together so beautifully and are some of the most beautiful objects I've ever been in contact with."
And third reason, says Anger, is Cooper himself — who allows the client to become an integral part of the creative process.
Anger plans to record a track later this year to feature on the Jonathan Cooper tribute album.
So far five admiring performers have submitted recordings for the project. They include Nashville native Mike Barnett, one of the most exciting young performers on the roots music scene.
Producer Ron Cody says he hopes the album — which has yet be titled — will be released next summer.