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V.com weekend vote: Would you consider changing your chin rest?

November 23, 2025, 2:54 PM · After Pirastro's big announcement this week about their new chin rest, the KorfkerSpring, I wanted to re-visit our vote about trying new chin rests: would you consider changing your chin rest?

I admit, I have not experimented all that much with chin rests - my violin still has the chin rest that I bought it with, some 20 years ago! Mine is a basic Guarneri-style chin rest that mounts over the center then has the chin plate on the left (in the illustration, it's the one on the upper right). However, I am aware that a good chin rest can make a big difference in one's comfort level, especially for those with a long neck. A shoulder rest can provide more height for the violin, but it does so from underneath the violin, and that pushes the violin upward. If you provide the height via the chin rest, the violin can remain closer to the shoulder. Potentially this can be more comfortable, as you don't have to raise your arm farther to reach the fiddle.

The KorfkerSpring looks so very different from any other chin rest I have tried, I am very curious about how that would feel and how it would affect my comfort level. I would say I have medium-tall neck, enough that I feel that I benefit from a supportive chin rest.

What are your feelings about your chin rest? What kind do you have? Are you happy with what you have? Have you experimented a great deal with chin rests, to come up with the right one? Are you still on the search for the right one? (Maybe you don't use one at all!) Are you relatively happy, but still a little curious about other chin rests? Please participate in the vote, then share your thoughts in the comments!

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For the Record, Op. 360: Nicola Benedetti, Quartet Integra, Johnny Gandelsman, Quatuor Diotima

Laurie Niles

November 21, 2025, 7:58 PM · Welcome to "For the Record," Violinist.com's weekly roundup of new releases of recordings by violinists, violists, cellists and other classical musicians. We hope it helps you keep track of your favorite artists, as well as find some new ones to add to your listening! Click on the highlighted links to obtain each album or learn more about the artists.

Violin Café
Nicola Benedetti, violin
Plínio Fernandes, guitar
Samuele Telari, accordionist
Thomas Carroll, cello

"The ensemble combination of violin, guitar, accordion, and cello came to me in the middle of the night," says Nicola Benedetti, "The standard violin and piano duo has a formality I knew wasn’t right, and this line-up of instruments delivers a communal, conversational ‘cafe appropriate’ sound. Our first rehearsal, given we were tackling brand new arrangements for the first time, had a higher dose of anticipation than is normal. But as we tore through one arrangement after another, we became increasingly bound as a group." The album includes arrangements of Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasie and Navarra; Wieniawski’s Polonaise; Ponce’s Estrellita; Maxwell-Davis’ Farewell to Stromness; Bloch’s Prayer; Debussy’s Beau Soir and Sicilienne, as well as traditional Scottish music. BELOW: Nicola talks about the repertoire in this album, which she has been touring across the UK and Ireland this fall.

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Pirastro Introduces Revolutionary New Chin Rest for Violin and Viola: KorfkerSpring

Laurie Niles

November 21, 2025, 9:59 AM · Today Pirastro announced the release of its latest innovation: the KorfkerSpring, a novel new chin rest for violin and viola that features a chin plate suspended atop an adjustable spring system. It is also arguably "the world's lightest" chin rest, weighing in at 15 grams.

The KorfkerSpring can be mounted center, left or right on the violin or viola. Also, the height, rotation and tilt of the chin plate - which is made of hardened Swiss maple - is fully customizable, allowing comprehensive individual adjustments.

The KorfkerSpring's patented spring system comes with six possible spring heights, allowing for a height adjustment from 25 to 50 millimeters, in 5-millimeter increments.

"The low springs offer a more conventional chin rest feel, while the higher springs allow players with a longer neck to play more comfortably than ever," according to Pirastro.

Pirastro has been developing the KorfkerSpring over the last 10 years with Berent Korfker, the Dutch violinist who invented Pirastro's popular lightweight shoulder rests, the KorfkerRest and KorfkerRest Luna.
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Park Sisters Documentary: A Musical Journey of Distinction

Laurie Sonsino

November 20, 2025, 10:57 AM · This documentary on the Park Sisters was made at the urging of several admirers to assure that their world-class playing would be recognized, and it was produced on the occasion of the Curtis Institute of Music's centenary. Watch it here:

The film follows their musical lives, beginning as children and performing together through their 50-year career. The Park sisters’ story is told by combining the narration with specific music taken from their live performances. Overcoming serious health issues and a family tragedy, theirs is a story of dedication and resolve.

Violinist Mi-Young Park and pianist Pong-Hi Park are two sisters who came to America following the Korean War. Before emigrating to America, though they were quite young, the Parks had established a career both as individual soloists and as sisters performing together. Mi-Young was the prize student of Byeongso Ahn, a revered Korean violinist, conductor, composer, and educator who taught the leading young Korean violinists of that time. He had been a student of Willy Hess in Germany.

When Ahn passed away, the only photograph that was found among his papers showing him with students was one with the Park sisters. He considered them unique talents destined for international careers.
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