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| Reply to STRING article.
May/June 2002 issue. As a long time reader and advertiser, I was delighted, that your fine editorial staff had demonstrated professional courage in publishing the well written article by Susan M. Barbieri, May/June 2002 issue, entitled "An Elegy for Ethics?" There are though some points I would like to take issue with. To start off, it is the comment of Bernard Chevalier, the music educator of Northern California. He states:" Compared to my students, I have superior knowledge about quality, price, playability, setup, strings, and rehairing. Compared to a violin salesman, with my decades of practice, I have vastly superior playing and demonstration ability. Why should I not be paid a fee for lending him my expertise to sell his product?" |
| I would like to ask this comparative question in return: "To purchase an automobile, would I be better served by asking a driving instructor for his choice of a car or would I choose a professional car mechanic for his competent advice?" "Or, if I want to become a racecar driver, do I have to learn about racecar driving from other driving instructors or would I consult an automotive engineer for his technical knowledge about racecars?" How to play a violin is the professional teacher’s field of competence, for which he receive remunerations from the student or his parent. Master violin makers, who also are dealers of stringed instruments and their bows, are experts and specialists in their field of making, repairing, restoring and appraising stringed instruments. By their extensive training, they are professionally fully competent, without the "under the table" paid-for O.K. of a teacher, to help a student or professional, with their instrumental needs or purchases. |
| You see, Mr. Chevalier, you may be an excellent violin teacher, but I can assure you, your supposed "superior knowledge" may only come in handy, when dealing with a salesman, selling cheap violins at a general music store, but it will be mere ignorance, by comparison, when dealing with a violin maker & dealer, who is most often not only highly trained but a master and an expert of his craft as well; aside of being a certified appraiser to boot. |
| It would be wise for any teacher to familiarize himself with any statues or
laws, which prohibit kickbacks or commercial bribery, like RICO or California’s
Unfair Practice Act, Section 17045, as suggested by Carla J. Shapreau, a
California violin maker and lawyer. One of the reasons no court cases have been
publicly logged, is that teachers have dealers over the proverbial "barrel."
Since the practice of clandestine payments to the teacher is rarely known to the
buyer, it quite possible now, with this practice becoming public knowledge, or
by the action of a disgruntled and vindictive teacher, that lawyers could become
interested in the legal pursuit of recovering the ill-gotten gains—from dealers
and teachers—for their clients.
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