A Good Silver Mounted Violin Bow by Vito Visicaro

Recently acquired from the collection of 91 year old Steven Staryk, this agile pernambuco violin bow features its maker’s brandstamp to the player side of the handle, “V. Visicaro.” Vito Visicaro has more than 35 years of experience as an achetier and leads Arcos Brazil USA, which he founded in 1997 with Celso de Mello. His bows are further and fewer between than the distinguished makers in his employ but highly regarded and priced accordingly, on par with American makers. With a balanced weight of 62.3 grams, this bow features a large pearl eye, fully silver lined frog, with matching three-piece button and blue silk on silver tinsel winding with black lizard leather thumb grip. It produces a broad, colorful bead of sound that is clear and focused, easily navigating the gamut of articulations and off the string strokes with nuance and finesse. Everything one would expect from a modern bow made for Staryk.

Steven Staryk was perhaps the defining voice of Canadian violin playing in the 20th century, boasting a discography of 30+ titles and over 190 compositions. At 24, he became the youngest concertmaster of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and earned a storied reputation as concertmaster of the Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra, the Concertgebouw, the Toronto Symphony, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and taught at the Vancouver Academy of Music, University of Victoria, University of Toronto, University of Ottowa, the University of Western Ontario, The Royal Conservatory of Music, the American Conservatory in Chicago, The Amsterdam  Conservatory, Northwestern, and Oberlin.