Written by Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins
My life has brought me many interesting intersecting circles.
The neighborhood I grew up in, Haddontowne in Cherry Hill, NJ, was filled with working musicians and artists. Many of my neighbors and parents of my friends were in the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was through neighborhood gatherings that I first met Herb Light, a violinist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his wife, a fine pianist Yoheved (Veda) Kaplinsky. Veda is now a piano professor and chairperson of the piano department at Juilliard. When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, I knew her as a really, really good piano teacher and performer.
Veda is from Israel and knew Pinchas Zukerman from their days as young star musicians in Israel. I first met Pinchas through Herb & Veda. But, honestly, I was a somewhat oblivious kid and it didn't really register on me who I was meeting.
When I was in college, Herb casually told me about a great violin maker in the town next to ours. Sergio Peresson was working in Haddonfield, NJ. Many famous musicians were commissioning instruments from him. At the time, he was working on a violin for Pinchas Zukerman. I was interested in violins and violin making and Sergio graciously let me visit him in his workshop. While I was there, I watched him work on the violin that would become Pinchas'.
