The 24th VSA International Violin Making Competition had been pushed back four years by the pandemic, and when it finally arrived in Los Angeles, the backlog showed. Nearly 300 makers from around the world entered more than 900 instruments and bows across the violin, viola, cello, and quartet categories, making it the largest field the competition had ever seen, and by far its most competitive.
Three awards, including the hardest one to win
At the awards ceremony, held at the Hyatt in Los Angeles on November 17, 2022, students of Scott won the Violin Tone Excellence Award, the Viola Tone Excellence Award, and the Quartet Tone Excellence Award. That last one is widely considered the most demanding category, since it calls for four instruments that don't just sound good individually, but blend as a matched set.
It extended a run the workshop had already built over more than a decade: twelve competitions in a row with at least one tone award to its name, a streak that's earned the team a reputation in the field as perennial champions of tone. It's recognition that places Scott Cao Violins' approach to sound not just among the best in China, but on the international stage more broadly.
Scott's own path to that reputation started decades earlier. Born in Guangzhou, he trained young under masters including Chen Jinnong, the first Chinese maker to win gold at an international violin making competition, before relocating to the United States in 1985, where he studied under several direct students of the legendary Simone Fernando Sacconi. His instruments have since won gold and silver medals internationally, and the players who own or have praised his violins include Itzhak Perlman, who has called him one of the finest makers he's encountered, along with Gidon Kremer and Nigel Kennedy.
