Stewart Pollens is an expert on historical musical instruments. His work includes restoration, analysis, and scholarly publication; and it embraces keyboard instruments (the harpsichord and fortepiano) as well as historical stringed instruments such as the violin and cello. Andrew Manze has called him "one of the world’s foremost authorities on musical instruments."Comment from Manze's review of Pollens's book Stradivari in Early Music (May 2011): 269-270
Life and career Stewart Pollens was born in New York in 1949 and trained as a violin and keyboard-instrument maker. In the 1970s he apprenticed with harpsichord builder John Challis and studied violin-making with Mittenwald faculty at the University of New Hampshire. From 1976 to 2006 he served as the Conservator of Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His work there included the restoration and maintenance of the museum's encyclopedic collection of over 5,000 instruments, as well as research, writing, and lecturing on the collection.Roger Starr, “The Hidden Rooms Behind Museum Displays,” City Journal 5/2 (Spring, 1995): 104-107; The Metropolitan Museum of Art Annual Report for the years 1976-2006.
After leaving the Metropolitan Museum, Pollens formed Violin Advisor, LLC, a consulting firm that authenticates and evaluates fine violins."The Talk of the Town," The New Yorker, November 24, 2008 In addition to his work there, Pollens restores stringed and early keyboard instruments for private collectors and museums (including an early New York piano for the Merchant's House Museum, an English bentside spinet for the Van Cortland House, and a Viennese fortepiano for the Morris-Jumel Mansion). He has done keyboard restoration and recording preparation work for Leonard Bernstein, Paul Badura-Skoda, John Browning, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Byron Janis, Igor Kipnis, and many others. Among the more unusual instruments that he has restored are an accordion once owned by Alice "In Wonderland" P. Liddell and a tambourine painted by Toulouse-Lautrec. Jabberwocky #82, vol. 22, no. 2 (Spring, 1993), Knight Letter # 45 (Summer, 1993).
Pollens is a contributor to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and The Strad.
Pollens is married to the concert violinist Stephanie Chase.
Research Pollens's research findings include the source of the design for the decorative inlay of Stradivari 's "Greffuhle" violin "Ornamental Ornithology," The Strad vol. 118, no. 1410 (October, 2007): 34-40. and a chemical analysis of Stradivari's violin varnish."Recipe for Success," The Strad vol. 120, no. 1429 (May, 2009): 34-38. Stewart Pollens, Stradivari: 262-279 In 1999, Pollens challenged the authenticity of the world's most famous violin, the Ashmolean Museum's Messiah Stradivarius, in a series of articles published in the Journal of the Violin Society of America. The controversy initiated by these articles and presentations at the Violin Society of America and the American Federation of Violin Makers was widely reported.These include The Wall Street Journal (March 11, 1999), The Times (London) (March 15, 1999; October 27, 2000; November 11, 2001; November 26, 2001), Le Figaro (December 7, 2000), La Stampa (March 28, 1999), The Strad (August, 2001), Attache (September, 1999), Money (June, 2002), Forbes.com (April 22, 2002) and Metropulse.com (February 17, 2001).
Select bibliography
See also History of the harpsichord Fortepiano Antonio Stradivari
References
External links Official website Interview with Stewart Pollens, Stay Thirsty Magazine, Vol. 110. 2021 Interview with Stewart Pollens, Stay Thirsty Magazine, March, 2012 "What Exalts Stradivarius? Not Varnish, Study Says", New York Times, December 4, 2009 "Why Cellos Sound Lousy in Bad Weather", Slate, January 26, 2009.