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Mar. 7th, 2007 05:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
violachicRobert Bein 1950-2007
Recognized as expert on precious violins
As a young cellist, Robert Bein used a small inheritance from his grandmother to buy a $2,000 French-made bow for his instrument from a music store in Cincinnati.
The bow, he found, brought new life to his playing. It sparked a lifelong fascination with fine stringed instruments that eventually brought Mr. Bein to Chicago, where he and a partner founded one of the world's foremost purveyors of violins, cellos and bows of impeccable provenance and jaw-dropping cost.
Mr. Bein, 56, died of melanoma Saturday, Feb. 24, in his Chicago home, said his business partner, Geoffrey Fushi.
From the 10th-floor offices of Bein & Fushi in the Fine Arts Building on South Michigan Avenue, the two men appraised, bought and sold the world's finest violins and cellos. They played the instruments as well, a side benefit for two one-time musicians.
Mr. Bein was the shop's resident scholar. Possessed of a photographic memory, he could identify at a glance hundreds of instruments made by European masters.
His intellectual skills quickly won him respect in the rarefied world of fine-instrument dealers and collectors.
"He had an uncanny ability to discern the make and value of fine instruments," said Samuel Magad, retired concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a friend of Mr. Bein's. "He understood very well the needs and desires of musicians."
Most recently, Mr. Bein was working on a book on the violins of Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu, one of the best-known craftsman of fine violins. Fushi said the firm will complete the book, which will attempt to chronicle all Guarneri del Gesu instruments in existence through photographs.
Mr. Bein grew up in Ohio, where his father was a music professor at Miami University and his mother played violin professionally. He was a good cello player and was accepted to Mannes College of Music in New York.
But he realized he would never be a great musician and lost motivation. His purchase of the new cello bow in 1971 set him on a new path.
Mr. Bein came to Chicago in the early 1970s. Among his first contacts was Carl Becker, a violin-maker, restorer and dealer with a firm started by his father, Carl Becker & Son Ltd. In ensuing years, Fushi & Bein would often send restoration work to Becker's shop.
"I admired him very much for the expertise he developed," said Becker, who at 87 continues to work on instruments.
Assessments by experts like Mr. Bein play a large role in determining an instrument's value. In a brief overview of his life, Mr. Bein wrote, "The opinions that I formulate are translated into financial guarantees that are in force for the life of the business."
The high-end instrument business is not without intrigue and occasional accusations of skullduggery. In the 1990s Bein & Fushi was among those accused by the estate of British violin collector Gerald Segelman of buying Segelman's instruments at devalued prices and selling them at steep markups. The Segelman estate dispute with Mr. Bein's firm was settled confidentially in March 2002.
"He was a businessman, very shrewd, a very intelligent man," said Becker, who said he found his friend's integrity unimpeachable. Mr. Bein and Fushi "did have a strong effect on the market; they kind of led the way with high prices for a while," Becker said.
Mr. Bein's interests included good food and expensive wine. He was a regular at chef Paul Kahan's Blackbird restaurant in Chicago and last fall took an extended trip through Spain and the south of France that included a stop at the internationally acclaimed El Bulli near Barcelona, said his wife, Elizabeth.
Mr. Bein is also survived by two sons, Joseph and Charles; his father, Joseph; two brothers, David and Jonathan; and a sister, Nancy.
A service will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Grainger Ballroom at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.
Recognized as expert on precious violins
As a young cellist, Robert Bein used a small inheritance from his grandmother to buy a $2,000 French-made bow for his instrument from a music store in Cincinnati.
The bow, he found, brought new life to his playing. It sparked a lifelong fascination with fine stringed instruments that eventually brought Mr. Bein to Chicago, where he and a partner founded one of the world's foremost purveyors of violins, cellos and bows of impeccable provenance and jaw-dropping cost.
Mr. Bein, 56, died of melanoma Saturday, Feb. 24, in his Chicago home, said his business partner, Geoffrey Fushi.
From the 10th-floor offices of Bein & Fushi in the Fine Arts Building on South Michigan Avenue, the two men appraised, bought and sold the world's finest violins and cellos. They played the instruments as well, a side benefit for two one-time musicians.
Mr. Bein was the shop's resident scholar. Possessed of a photographic memory, he could identify at a glance hundreds of instruments made by European masters.
His intellectual skills quickly won him respect in the rarefied world of fine-instrument dealers and collectors.
"He had an uncanny ability to discern the make and value of fine instruments," said Samuel Magad, retired concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a friend of Mr. Bein's. "He understood very well the needs and desires of musicians."
Most recently, Mr. Bein was working on a book on the violins of Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu, one of the best-known craftsman of fine violins. Fushi said the firm will complete the book, which will attempt to chronicle all Guarneri del Gesu instruments in existence through photographs.
Mr. Bein grew up in Ohio, where his father was a music professor at Miami University and his mother played violin professionally. He was a good cello player and was accepted to Mannes College of Music in New York.
But he realized he would never be a great musician and lost motivation. His purchase of the new cello bow in 1971 set him on a new path.
Mr. Bein came to Chicago in the early 1970s. Among his first contacts was Carl Becker, a violin-maker, restorer and dealer with a firm started by his father, Carl Becker & Son Ltd. In ensuing years, Fushi & Bein would often send restoration work to Becker's shop.
"I admired him very much for the expertise he developed," said Becker, who at 87 continues to work on instruments.
Assessments by experts like Mr. Bein play a large role in determining an instrument's value. In a brief overview of his life, Mr. Bein wrote, "The opinions that I formulate are translated into financial guarantees that are in force for the life of the business."
The high-end instrument business is not without intrigue and occasional accusations of skullduggery. In the 1990s Bein & Fushi was among those accused by the estate of British violin collector Gerald Segelman of buying Segelman's instruments at devalued prices and selling them at steep markups. The Segelman estate dispute with Mr. Bein's firm was settled confidentially in March 2002.
"He was a businessman, very shrewd, a very intelligent man," said Becker, who said he found his friend's integrity unimpeachable. Mr. Bein and Fushi "did have a strong effect on the market; they kind of led the way with high prices for a while," Becker said.
Mr. Bein's interests included good food and expensive wine. He was a regular at chef Paul Kahan's Blackbird restaurant in Chicago and last fall took an extended trip through Spain and the south of France that included a stop at the internationally acclaimed El Bulli near Barcelona, said his wife, Elizabeth.
Mr. Bein is also survived by two sons, Joseph and Charles; his father, Joseph; two brothers, David and Jonathan; and a sister, Nancy.
A service will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Grainger Ballroom at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-07 01:00 pm (UTC)I felt like that when Edward Said died. Do you know of anyone who seems to be following in his path?
Also... could you help me choose my first violin? I need some tips.
helene.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-07 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-07 08:08 pm (UTC)First violin tip: Don't buy it off of Ebay! :-) They're invariably super crappy instruments that will fall apart in a month or two, and are so badly made it can actually interfere with playing. I'd recommend trying to find a decent shop that will rent one to you for awhile.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-07 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-09 01:40 am (UTC)