Stephen Bacon, who founded the respected sales and repair shop in 1985, sells it to store manager Will Scharen

By Julia Sommer for Ashland.news

Stephen Bacon has been proprietor of Bellwood Violin on Hersey Street in Ashland since 1985. He just wrapped up 40 years of service to the community on his 70th birthday by selling his business to employee Will Scharen, a professional trombonist who is quickly learning the strings trade.

Bellwood boasts that it has the largest selections of bowed instruments — violins, violas, cellos, basses — between San Francisco and Portland. It offers rentals, sales and consignments, repair and restoration and insurance appraisals. 

It starts with a Green Show gig

Bacon came to Ashland in 1980 from San Francisco to perform with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Green Show as a singer and player of period instruments, including woodwinds — the cornetto, recorders, rauschpfeife and crumhorn — the sackbut (an early trombone) and the cittern, a stringed instrument dating to the Renaissance. He performed only that year but was an OSF company member for over 20 years in charge of instrument repair and construction.

Bacon fell in love with the area and set about making instruments until his work in historic instrument restoration came to fruition in Bellwood Violin. Bellwood was Bacon’s mother’s maiden name; she died when he was a boy. 

Bacon has helped innumerable amateur and professional musicians with repairs, serving as a hub for the string community. 

Serving musicians big and small

Faina Podolnaya, Ashland’s premier violin teacher and leader of the internationally prize-winning Siskiyou Violins, says of Bacon: “When I came to this country 25 years ago (from Kazakhstan), I was asked what I liked best about America. I said the people. Stephen is one of the reasons I fell in love with this country. All my students love him. He’s so kind, so generous. Just to come to his shop is fun, he knows everybody, he cares about everybody.”

One famous client was internationally known cellist Lynn Harrell, who was here to solo with the Britt Festival Orchestra. “A seam opened up on his cello, and he came to my shop with his $4 million Montagnana!” Bacon said. (Domenico Montagnana made violins and cellos in Venice in the 1700s.) “Montagnanas are even more sought-after than Strads. Lynn was so humble, a fun guy to have in the shop, just wonderful.”

Renaissance and Baroque musician

Bacon began music lessons in third grade in Southern California, trying out the trumpet, tuba, string bass, flute and recorders. He’s mainly a Renaissance musician, but performs with Jefferson Baroque Orchestra as a singer and on the baroque trumpet, recorder, flute and cornetto — the latter his passion.

“I’m just an amateur musician,” he said, with some modesty. “My gifts are with my eyes, my hands, my ears, and I have the ability to use tools.”

Bacon began making and repairing musical instruments at 17 in his grandfather’s shop in Hermosa Beach, California. From ages 16 through 23 he served a formal apprenticeship with famed bicyclist Ted Ernst, learning a sense of ethics, how to do business and mechanics.

His formal education included studying music theory and construction of historic instruments at Cal State Dominguez Hills, USC-Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, UCLA, the University of California Riverside, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, the Ali Akbar School of Music in San Rafael, California, and Southern Oregon University.

Bacon is a big supporter of the Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon and a past board member. He has served as an instructor for SOU’s Collegium Musicum and is the conservator for the Schuman Collection of Musical Instruments at SOU — a unique collection of historic, artistic musical instruments from around the world.

Shop has a wide reach

Repairing school instruments from Ashland, Medford, Grants Pass and Klamath Falls at a discount has always been a big part of Bellwood’s business. 

“We also meet the professional needs of the university, Rogue Valley Symphony, and Britt Festival Orchestra,” Bacon said. “We serve as a clearinghouse for local instrument makers and maintain a stock of fine instruments.”

Bacon is the great-grandson of Edward R. Bacon, an accomplished violinist and owner of the John Hornsteiner violin shop in Chicago in the early 1900s. Hornsteiner was highly influential in the American school of violin making.

Bacon said Oregon has some natural advantages for making stringed instruments.

“Because of the abundance and variety of tone woods and hardwoods in the area, woodworkers and instrument makers have always been part of this community,” Bacon said. “Our Engelmann spruce, Sitka spruce, and big-leaf maple are the best woods from which to make violas and cellos.

“I’ve had interns and apprentices in my shop since Day 1,” Bacon said. “Six have achieved doctorates. After a year, they’re earning $20-plus an hour. That’s pretty good for high schoolers.”

One of those former apprentices is Alex Buktenica, who divides his time between making and restoring violins in Cremona, Italy — a town famous for such — and Bellwood. He will continue to do so under new owner Scharen.

Scharen has been Bellwood’s shop manager for over three years. 

The hands and head for the work

“Will’s personality and his ability to work with the staff have proven invaluable,” Bacon said. “He understands that the shop has become an essential service to keep our music community healthy. I have great faith in both his mechanical ability and his musical sensitivities.”

Originally from Bozeman, Montana, Scharen arrived in Ashland 11 years ago after receiving a doctorate in trombone from the University of Colorado Boulder. He has played with the Rogue Valley Symphony for 10 years, as well as regional orchestras in Oregon, Colorado, and Wyoming.

“Ashland seems like a smaller version of Boulder,” he said.

Scharen is learning the string trade as he goes. He plans to take take an intensive training course in violin and bow techniques this summer in Ashland, Ohio.

Why did he decide to buy Bellwood?

“The allure of continuing a tradition of serving the community. I’m honored to have the opportunity to continue Stephen’s legacy. It’s so difficult to start a business from scratch, so to step into a profitable, established business is a blessing. I’ve hopped on a train that’s already moving.”

Bacon will continue to work one or two days a week, repairing bows and coaching restoration.

What else does he plan for in retirement? 

“I’ve only had one two-week vacation in my whole career, so it might be nice to travel some,” he said. “Aside from working in my garden, playing music and hiking with my lovely wife, I still have a number of instruments I hope to build.”

For more information about Bellwood Violin, go to Bellwoodviolin.com.

Email freelance writer Julia Sommer of Ashland at [email protected].