Michael Rhonheimer
Michael Rhonheimer is a Swiss violin maker .
Rhonheimer achieved worldwide fame when a violin he built and made of wood treated with mushrooms clearly defeated an original Stradivarius from 1711 in a comparison test carried out in September 2009: a jury of experts and the audience at the Osnabrück Tree Care Days rated the sound with a large majority the mushroom violin as clearly better. In the comparison, the British violinist Matthey Trusler played the instruments hidden behind a curtain.
The violin, made from biotechnologically treated wood, was developed in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Materials Testing and Research Institute (EMPA). The violin made by Michael Rhonheimer was treated with special Xylaria longipes mushrooms from the laboratory of Empa specialist Francis Schwarze. This fungus treatment gave the violin wood properties similar to those of the material used by the Italian violin maker Antonio Stradivari . The violin, made of biotechnologically treated wood, was presented to the public for the first time in autumn 2008 at the Swiss Innovation Forum in Basel .
Michael Rhonheimer has been running a violin making studio in Baden since 1986, where he makes four to five violins a year.
Web links
- Website of the violin maker Michael Rhonheimer
- "Stradivarius sound thanks to fungal attack" , contribution of 10 September 2009 on the show Einstein of the Swiss Television
Individual evidence
- ^ "" Fungi goes classic "- Empa violin surpasses Stradivari" , admin.ch , 10 September 2009
- ↑ “First appearance of the biotechnologically treated violin: Stradivari sound thanks to fungus” , EMPA November 5, 2008
- ↑ "" Mushroom violin "ignores Stradivarius" , swissinfo , October 16, 2009
- ^ "Mushroom violin strikes Stradivari" , stern.de , 10 September 2009
- ↑ “Stradivaris Musterlehrling” , Tages-Anzeiger , October 3, 2009
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rhonheimer, Michael |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss violin maker |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 20th century |