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Stewart Pollens (born in New York, 1949) trained as a violin and keyboard-instrument maker,〔In the 1970s, Pollens apprenticed with harpsichord builder John Challis and studied violinmaking with Mittenwald faculty at the University of New Hampshire.〕 He served as the Conservator of Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1976–2006. His work there included the restoration and maintenance of the museum's encyclopedic collection of over 5,000 instruments, as well as research, writing, and lecturing on the collection. After leaving the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pollens formed Violin Advisor, LLC, a consulting firm that advises purchasers of fine violins.〔("The Talk of the Town," ''The New Yorker'', November 24, 2008 )〕 He continues to conduct research and write on the subject of musical instruments, including his discovery of the source of the design for the decorative inlay of Stradivari 's "Greffuhle" violin 〔"Ornamental Ornithology," ''The Strad'' vol. 118, no. 1410 (October, 2007): 34-40. 〕 and his chemical analysis of Stradivari's violin varnish.〔"Recipe for Success," ''The Strad'' vol. 120, no. 1429 (May, 2009): 34-38.〕 Pollens is frequently interviewed by publications that most recently include ''The New York Times''〔("What Exalts Stradivarius? Not Varnish, Study Says": ''The New York Times'', December 4, 2009 )〕 and ''Slate''.〔("Why Cellos Sound Lousy in Bad Weather," ''Slate,'' January 26, 2009 )〕 In addition to his work at Violin Advisor, Pollens restores stringed and early keyboard instruments for private collectors and museums (including an early New York piano for the Merchant's House Museum, an English bentside spinet for the Van Cortland House, and a Viennese fortepiano for the Morris-Jumel Mansion). He has done keyboard restoration and recording preparation work for Leonard Bernstein, Paul Badura-Skoda, John Browning, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Byron Janis, Igor Kipnis, and many others. Among the more unusual instruments that he has restored are an accordion once owned by Alice "In Wonderland" P. Liddell and a tambourine painted by Toulouse-Lautrec. His book ''The Manual of Musical Instrument Conservation'', published by Cambridge University Press in 2015, is the first comprehensive guide to the care and maintenance of historic instruments. His book ''Stradivari'' was published by Cambridge University Press in 2010 and includes new biographical information and detailed analyses of Stradivari's workshop materials preserved in the Museo Stradivariano in Cremona. Pollens's seminal work on the history of the piano, ''The Early Pianoforte'' (Cambridge University Press), published 1995, in was reprinted in paperback in 2009. In preparation ''Bartolomeo Cristofori and the Invention of the Piano'' will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2016. Pollens is married to the concert violinist Stephanie Chase. ==Publications and activities== Pollens has written extensively on stringed and early keyboard instruments, including ''The Violin Forms of Antonio Stradivari'' (London, 1992), ''The Early Pianoforte'' (Cambridge, 1995), ''Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù'' (London, 1998), ''François-Xavier Tourte: Bow Maker'' (New York, 2001), and ''The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar'' (Cambridge, 2003). He is a contributor to ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' and writes on a regular basis for ''The Strad.'' Pollens's book ''The Violin Forms of Antonio Stradivari'' has been hailed as "the standard work on the evolution of Stradivarius's designs."〔Giles Whittell, ''The Times,'' October 27, 2000〕 This book contains life-size photographs of all of the extant wood forms and patterns used by Stradivari in the construction of his violins, violas, and cellos, and includes an analysis of their geometry. In ''The Early Pianoforte'', Pollens traces the history of the piano back to 1440, nearly three-hundred years before the work of Bartolomeo Cristofori, the harpsichord maker who is generally credited with having invented the piano in Florence around 1700. This book examines the work of numerous makers, including Henri Arnaut de Zwolle, Bartolomeo Cristofori, Giovanni Ferrini, Domenico del Mela, Henrique Van Casteel, Joachim José Antunes, Francisco Pérez Mirabal, Gottfried Silbermann, and Christian Ernst Friederici.〔In 1997, Pollens received the American Musical Instrument Society's Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize for this Cambridge University Press publication.〕 In ''François-Xavier Tourte: Bow Maker,'' Pollens and co-author Henryk Kaston provide a technical description of Francois Tourte's working methods and reveal new biographical facts based upon previously unpublished documents discovered in French archives. ''Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù'' features 200 life-size color photographs taken by Pollens and complete technical documentation of the twenty-five Guarneri violins that were displayed in the "Masterpieces of Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù" exhibition held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1994. Containing newly discovered biographical and historical information, this is the most thorough study to date of this great maker and his work. Pollens contributed the chapter on dendrochronology, a scientific procedure used to determine the age of the wood used in making violins. In 1999, Pollens challenged the authenticity of the world's most famous violin, the Ashmolean Museum's Messiah Stradivarius, in a series of articles published in the ''Journal of the Violin Society of America''. The controversy initiated by these articles and presentations at the Violin Society of America and the American Federation of Violin Makers was widely reported in major newspapers and magazines throughout the world.〔These include ''The Wall Street Journal'' (March 11, 1999), ''The Times'' (London) (March 15, 1999; October 27, 2000; November 11, 2001; November 26, 2001), ''Le Figaro'' (December 7, 2000), ''La Stampa'' (March 28, 1999), ''The Strad'' (August, 2001), ''Attache'' (September, 1999), ''Money'' (June, 2002), ''Forbes.com'' (April 22, 2002) and ''Metropulse.com'' (February 17, 2001).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stewart Pollens」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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