I have two favourite violins—both 19th-century Bohemian instruments—and each found its way to me in an unexpected way.

The first came from a violin shop in Ottawa in 2019. We were staying in Gatineau for a week while the kids attended summer camps, and I spent my days happily fiddling in the little house we’d rented. On our last day, I visited a music store, thinking I might buy a new bow. But as I tried out bows, I made a surprising discovery: every violin in the shop sounded better than mine.

The violin I’d been playing was a gift from my parents—custom-made by a local luthier who was more experienced with guitars than violins. It had a beautiful fingerboard inlaid with mother-of-pearl, but its sound was quiet, fuzzy, and dull. I’d practiced for hours and hours on it during my re-entry into music, so it had great sentimental value—but now I realized it was holding me back.

The violin I ended up buying wasn’t flashy. It was plain, dented, and pitted, but it sounded wonderful—and it cost less than $500 CAD. The shop owner told me he’d found it at a flea market in the Czech Republic, where he regularly sources instruments to restore and sell. That violin became my go-to.

Not long after, my cousin Jim gave me another violin—something he’d picked up at a garage sale for $25. It was in rough shape: seams coming apart, housed in a coffin case, with a collection of fancy pegs and mismatched chin rests rattling around inside. I tucked it into a closet and forgot about it until early in the pandemic, when boredom led me to string it up just to hear what it might sound like.

It had potential, so we brought it to the same Ottawa shop for repairs. Then the border closed, and the violin stayed in the shop for a very long time. When we finally picked it up, it sounded decent—about on par with my other fiddle. I started switching between the two.

A couple of years later, one of the cracks reopened, and this time I brought it to Dennis Alexander. He didn’t just fix the crack—he corrected earlier repairs and gave it a full rebuild. The result was astonishing. It’s now the best-sounding violin I’ve ever played.

I still wonder what magic Dennis might be able to work on the other one. There’s always a bit of luck with old instruments, but in this case, I think the magic is mostly Dennis.