{"id":27493,"date":"2015-04-19T09:51:28","date_gmt":"2015-04-19T13:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=27493"},"modified":"2015-04-19T09:51:28","modified_gmt":"2015-04-19T13:51:28","slug":"profile-the-tattooed-luthier-new-life-in-young-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2015\/04\/19\/profile-the-tattooed-luthier-new-life-in-young-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"PROFILE | The Tattooed Luthier: New Life in Young Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Luthier
Luthier Leyland Hiphner Photo: John Davidson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

L<\/span>eyland Hiphner (Lee) wasn\u2019t happy, and that changed everything. The 6\u20194\u201d B.C. native sits at his workbench doing a general set up of a violin at Geo. Heinl & Co. Ltd.<\/a> on Church Street in Toronto. Hiphner, 26, is the newest luthier on staff, hired in July, 2013 and seems, frankly, still surprised at his new gig.<\/p>\n

Until a few years ago, Hiphner was employed making high-end cabinetry in B.C. but something was bugging him. Hiphner leans back from the violin and in the process, reveals part of what he describes as a rather extensive tattoo peeking out from under the right sleeve cuff of his shirt. The design is all about his grandfather, a mechanic on an aircraft carrier in the Canadian Navy. \u201cIt all means something,\u201d Hiphner says, and this<\/em> is the big clue to how our Hiphner ticks: this need for meaning <\/em>is what brings him to Toronto.<\/p>\n

The violin Hiphner is working on was brought in to sell at Heinl\u2019s. \u201cThis needs some work if we\u2019re going to represent it in the shop,\u201d he says. Heinl\u2019s is world-class. Seriously. That is a fact and Hiphner knows it. He finishes reshaping the pegs with the Wirbelschnider\u00a0<\/em>(looks like a pencil sharpener but the name sounds like beer). He drapes the instrument in a protective bib and begins planing the ebony fingerboard.<\/p>\n

He is surrounded by veteran craftsman, tools and shelves full of the potions needed to either bring an instrument up to snuff, or create a new one. Behind him is a double-burner hot plate under two Game-of-Thrones-ish crucibles simmering special glue. There are violins, cellos and basses everywhere. In one corner, there is a workbench with nothing but bows and perfect swatches of horse hair, likely from perfect horses. There are cellos and a bass laid out on special tables undergoing various forms of detailed work.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There is an odd sense, if you anthropomorphize anything at all, that these instruments are glad to be here. Like they\u2019re getting therapy (\u201cTroy, I never wanted to be a bass. As a sapling, I was kind \u2018a keen on the viola. It\u2019s okay. Relax. Tell me about your forest.\u201d).<\/p>\n

Hiphner does woodworking all through high school. He graduates with a joinery degree from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, then works in a shop, making high-end cabinetry. Initially, he thinks that this is where he is meant to be. Life is good. The pieces are unique and expensive. He likes the work, but slowly, a relentless, deep realization takes hold like a wolf note that won\u2019t go away: \u201cAt the end of the day, you deliver the coffee table. They put their coffee on it and it\u2019s level and it doesn\u2019t spill and they say, \u2018Thank you very much,\u2019 and \u2018here\u2019s your cheque\u2019 and you leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiphner looks up from the fingerboard. \u201cYou\u2019re putting your heart and soul into every aspect.\u201d He shakes his head. \u201cThey just didn\u2019t appreciate it.\u201d He needs reciprocation. He needs the soul connection that goes with creating something artistically important; as heartfelt for the buyer as it is for the maker. Hiphner\u2019s epiphany comes shortly after and sounds like something from a movie. He and his step-dad start playing cello together. The next thing Hiphner knows, he is interviewing for the Chicago School of Violin Making and another school in Boston. There is a year\u2019s wait for both, so, as the movie goes, he returns home, gets a promotion at work and signs a year\u2019s lease on a new apartment. Phone rings and a-space-is-open-in-Chicago-and-does-he-want-it-and-they-need-to-know-in-24-hours. Hiphner goes crazy. \u201c I jumped ship, broke my lease, gave away all of my stuff. I went to Chicago with two bags, and it was minus 30!\u201d Three years later he graduates, and then applies to Heinl\u2019s \u201con a hope.\u201d And here he is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love woodworking. I love being able to work with my hands. The biggest thing is that I want to put myself into whatever I do to the full extent, and to have someone else reciprocate it, someone who\u2019s really excited and gung-ho, that\u2019s what gives me a kick.\u201d The idea of making an instrument, something so special with a specific sound that someone is looking for, keen on, is Hiphner\u2019s dovetail (see what I did there?). So, yes, he\u2019s at Heinl\u2019s with a diploma, but there is much learning to do. The craftsmen at Heinl\u2019s use a different method of making than what the Chicago School teaches. Hiphner explains that, in regards to creating the arch on the top and the back which houses the sound cavity, the Chicago School\u2019s students learn to create this almost sacred shape from the outside in. Heinl\u2019s uses the Italian Catenary Method, which involves working sequentially from the inside out. Hiphner is illustrating the method in detail when Ric Heinl, President of the company, hands him a violin. Heinl has a knowing smile on his face and stands back while Hiphner looks inside at the label: \u201cStrad, 1719.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then examines the instrument and explains that because of the way the arching is pulled off to the left on the back from the soundpost pressure over time, the label is \u201cincorrect.\u201d He goes on to explain the three Stradivarius periods and how common it is to find copies. Hiphner doesn\u2019t hesitate: he knows his stuff. \u201cYeah, it\u2019s a copy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiphner sells the first violin he makes at Heinl\u2019s to Atis Bankas<\/a>, a prominent violinist with a list of achievements, local and world-wide, that will make your head spin. \u201cIt kind of blew my mind,\u201d Hiphner says. He describes how Bankas is visiting the shop and Hiphner asks him to play the finished violin. Bankas borrows it and then, a few days later, returns to the shop. \u201cI\u2019ll take it,\u201d he says. Hiphner smiles. Bankas, talking on the phone from Niagara-on-the-Lake, where he is the founder and Artistic director of Music Niagara, among every thing else, is delighted with the violin. \u201cIt made a nice sound,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"20150414-_DSC4661-Edit
Leyland Hiphner at Geo. Heinl & Co. Ltd. Photo: John Davidson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hiphner\u2019s bench is right next to an impressive wall of CDs and the sound system for the room. He likes most music styles and comments that in regards to classical music, he\u2019s \u201cnot an expert by any means,\u201d but he\u2019s learning what he likes. Bach and Tchaikovsky are great but he says that the big draw for him is the modern composers. Hiphner likes the pieces written over the last 80 years and mentions John Adams and John Corigliano. \u201c\u2019Totally different styles. Really exciting.\u201d His ideas about where classical music is going do not involve any of the tired old arguments about it dying. \u201cNot at all.\u201d He thinks the repertoire might change a little bit. \u201cIt depends on who\u2019s invested in it and with the baby-boomers getting older, it\u2019s hard to say definitively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiphner has more tattoos planned. Hard to find the time between work and making on his own, but he\u2019ll get to it. Life is good for our Hiphner. \u201cThis is going to be really amazing,\u201d he says. Now <\/em>he\u2019s happy.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Leyland Hiphner wasn\u2019t happy, and that changed everything. The 6\u20194\u201d B.C. native sits at his workbench doing a general set up of a violin at Geo. Heinl & Co. Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":27500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[118,4968],"tags":[5395,5394,2035],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/04\/20150414-_DSC4651-Edit-Edit-Edit-copy.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-79r","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27493"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27557,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27493\/revisions\/27557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27493"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=27493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}