of Arizona International A THANK YOU TO DAN HENDERSON
Bill Barnitz, Tucson, Arizona
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One of the nice things about our Association is some of our traditions. One of the longest of these traditions
we have enjoyed is having Dan Henderson play the first round of the entire violins that are entered into competition
This has been an annual tradition for the past thirty-six years!
Dan is highly qualified to play them. He started playing when he was eight years old and soon realized that he liked to play and that he had perfect pitch. He was trained by Henry Kolar in San Diego. Dan also studied with Isaac Malcolm of the Manhattan School of Music in New York. He was very taken with playing the violin and would practice thirty to forty hours a week. Frequently he would listen to records by Jasha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein and Leonid Kogan and learn to play what they were doing. Dan was introduced to our Association when he met Harry Wake. Although Dan has never made a violin, he was fascinated by the process and would hang out with the local makers. Bill Fulton invited Dan to come to Globe (AZ) and enjoy our competition and meet the makers in attendance. He soon found himself helping out. This was about 1968 and Dan has never missed a competition since! In addition to helping with playing the violin and viola at the yearly competition, Dan has also judged bows, both for us and the VSA (Violin Society of America) in Salt Lake City in 1982. Dan knew all the well-known makers in VMAAI and played all of their instruments. In addition to Bill Fulton and Harry Wake, some of the other makers were Bill Hart, Maurice Roy, Fred Craig, Forrest Craig, Sam and Dolly Daniels and Carmen White . . . and, in fact, he knows them all! However, Dan never met Bob Wallace who had died before he started attending. Once he started being the playing judge, he presented as many as 120 violins to the listening judges. When the competition moved to Mesa, Dan kept coming as the principal violinist and when the venue was moved to Tucson, Dan was right there! In fact he recruited Shirley Weaver to help with the viola and quartet competitions. At the same time that he was helping us each October, Dan became the principal violist for the San Diego County Symphony. He has also enjoyed playing chamber music and has followed that interest for more than thirty years. He was in a polka band, played for Broadway musicals and, in 1987, was invited to be part of the orchestra for the World Peace Symposium held in Kansas City. This orchestra attracted the largest radio and television audience ever recorded. As a result of Dan’s vast and extensive playing experiences, he can quickly tell if an instrument in competition is a good one. The most pertinent advice he offers to competitors is to be very self-critical about how the instrument is set up. The bridge is very crucial and must be done right if the instrument is going to be able to “speak”. Very often Dan sees violins that have tilted bridges or poorly carved or fitted ones. As a result of his laudable efforts, Dan has been awarded the title of “Player Judge Emeritus”. This year Dan has agreed to assist the competition chair with the new playing judges. His advice will be most helpful and will directly contribute, as usual, to a wonderful competition. All of us will be most pleased to have Dan with us once again to advise the new judges as they play the instruments. The Board of Directors wishes to thank Dan for his many years of invaluable help. Without his contributions for the past thirty-six years, VMAAI would not have been able to have the yearly competitions that are the hallmark of our Association. We are the only violin makers group that holds a yearly competition and, in large part, that is directly attributable to Dan’s willingness to be here every year and play the instruments for us. Dan you are invaluable to us and we look forward to seeing you, happily, once again this October!
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Last year (2004) was the last time Dan will have done this task. Dan has been suffering with some arm problems
that have influenced his playing and his ability to practice. Dan was concerned that the competition might suffer.
The competition committee listened to Dan's warm-up and practice and felt that he was doing just fine.
But after the competition last year, the Board of Directors decided that this heavy duty should be shifted
to someone else. Reluctantly, the Board has released Dan from carrying the responsibility of always being here, always
being able to play and always having to face the daunting task of making each instrument sound as great as he could
make it sound. While reviewing the last thirty-six years of Dan’s contributions to the Association, we estimated that Dan has played about six thousand instruments.