250-year-old violin to be star of Illinois State recital

NORMAL, Ill. (AP) - A violin made 250 years ago by a famed Italian family will be the star of a weekend recital in central Illinois.

Illinois State University violin professor Sarah Gentry will play the Guarneri violin Sunday night during a performance featuring baroque-era chamber pieces, The (Bloomington) Pantagraph reported (http://bit.ly/1ypt5Zy).

The instrument is on loan for one performance only from two Illinois State University graduates who asked to remain anonymous.

Gentry said there are a lot of older instruments still around. But very few bear the Guarneri stamp. She said the instruments, along with those with the Stradivarius seal, were the gold standard during "The Golden Age of Violin" in 1700s Italy.

Gentry first got her hands on the violin Friday, giving her just 48 hours to practice on it before Sunday's recital - a situation she likened to "a blind date."

"I'm not afraid of it, but I don't want to drop it," she said. "I think we'll be a couple who make beautiful music together."

A historian has traced the violin's ownership from London to Colorado, where a local heiress and her family loaned it to noted violin performer and teacher Louis Persinger. His association with the instrument ended around 1929, according to Jeremy C. Young, visiting assistant professor of history at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.

The violin then passed through several families to its current owner.

Gentry will be joined on stage Sunday by two Illinois State University colleagues and a guest artist who will play the cello, flute and harpsichord.