SALEM - Guests who stop by the Andrew Safford mansion in Washington Square during this weekend's house tour will be treated to a rare musical experience while they're viewing the home. The Peabody Quartet will provide a little music on four violin-family instruments crafted by Carleen Hutchins, a Wolfeboro, N.H., instrument-maker.
A New Jersey native, Hutchins, 95, grew up with two hobbies: music and woodworking. She started out playing the trumpet, but family members told her she was too loud and insisted she switch to a slightly quieter instrument. She chose the viola.
"My uncle made violins as a hobby," Hutchins recalls. "I asked him if he could make me a viola, and he said, 'Make one yourself.'"
And she did. It took her two years, but by following a blueprint she got from a violin maker, she was able to craft her own viola. She continued making instruments for 20 years while raising her family.
Among the instruments she crafted was the Violin Octet, which she constructed at the request of Henry Brant, then a composer-in-residence at Bennington College in Vermont in 1957.
Hutchins said Brant was looking for a violin maker "crazy enough" to try his idea - a set of violin-family instruments from a 7-foot stand-up bass to a treble violin. Treble violins are slightly smaller than regular violins but achieve a wider range than the standard violin family.
A New Jersey native, Hutchins, 95, grew up with two hobbies: music and woodworking. She started out playing the trumpet, but family members told her she was too loud and insisted she switch to a slightly quieter instrument. She chose the viola.
"My uncle made violins as a hobby," Hutchins recalls. "I asked him if he could make me a viola, and he said, 'Make one yourself.'"
And she did. It took her two years, but by following a blueprint she got from a violin maker, she was able to craft her own viola. She continued making instruments for 20 years while raising her family.
Among the instruments she crafted was the Violin Octet, which she constructed at the request of Henry Brant, then a composer-in-residence at Bennington College in Vermont in 1957.
Hutchins said Brant was looking for a violin maker "crazy enough" to try his idea - a set of violin-family instruments from a 7-foot stand-up bass to a treble violin. Treble violins are slightly smaller than regular violins but achieve a wider range than the standard violin family.
The concept of the Violin Octet had been thrown around for hundreds of years, Hutchins said. Several orchestras across the country have now taken the time to learn to play the instruments as an octet.
The Peabody Quartet was drawn to the instruments after Salem resident and quartet member Robert Nersasian met Hutchins four years ago. She introduced Nersasian and his fellow musicians to the Violin Octet. The quartet will be borrowing four of Hutchins' instruments to perform a special arrangement as part of this weekend's house tour.
