1689 Baumgartner Stradivarius violin

This early period Stradivarius was acquired by Gordon Jeffrey from Robert Masters, the concertmaster of the Bath Festival Orchestra (England) during Yehudi Menuhin's tenure as conductor. The instrument was used in many recordings made by the Orchestra under Menuhin's direction. Étienne Périlhon, of Paris, owned it in the early 1950s, followed by P. Nicholson of Folkestone, England, in the early 1960s. In 1963, Mr. Fritz Baumgartner of Basel, Switzerland, acquired the violin. In 1986 Gordon Jeffrey, a great patron of music and scion of the family that founded London Life Insurance Company, bequeathed it to the University of Western Ontario, from which an anonymous donor purchased it in 1997.

The instrument is a two piece back of select maple and displays a strong figure. The ribs are of matching materials and the scroll is of similar materials. It has a two piece top of narrow grain, widening at the flanks. The varnish is of an orange brown colour.

Donor: Anonymous loan
Acquired: 1997

Past winners:

1997 - 2003 Judy Kang (Edmonton, Alberta)
2003 - 2006 Alexandre Da Costa (Montréal, Québec)
2006 - 2009 Judy Kang (New York, New York)
2009 - 2012 Judy Kang (New York, New York)
2012 - 2015 Iryna Krechkovsky
2015 - 2018 Andrea Tyniec
2018 - 2022 Emma Meinrenken