At the heart of many of the world’s musical instruments is the same, simple component—a string stretched tight between two points. Plucked, bowed, or struck, each of an instrument’s strings creates ...

Don’t fret. Benjamin Williams can repair that coveted string instrument for you. The gifted luthier, after years working out of his home, has settled in nicely to the Old Town neighborhood of Mankato.

The fragrance of varnish and curing wood drifts by as you enter Side Door Strings, transporting you to an era when objects and the tools that built them were all made by hand. A violin in the raw sits ...

Abrasive, intense and about to erupt at any moment. So begins Flow, a new piece by Nokuthula Ngwenyama for the Takács Quartet. Coaxing peculiar sounds out of centuries-old string instruments, the ...

This is the sixth ina series of articles about classical Chinese instruments and the traditional Chinese music orchestra, in which we explore how musicians play the eight different types of instrument ...