The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sweet, sweet music
Beau Vinci Violins’ owners share passion for instruments, tradition.
The violin holds sway over Emily Dixon. She learned to play violin at age 15, and since then, any career roads leading away from it have curved back around as if in synchrony with her favorite string instrument.
Six years ago, Dixon discovered that her passion for violins compliments a Northside niche and opened Beau Vinci Violins in Alpharetta with her husband, Mike.
“P e ople in this area are very centered around orchestra,” she says. “And our schools are in need of instrument repairs.”
There are more than six community orchestra organizations, as well as youth orchestras, in the area.
Beau Vinci offers hundreds of violins, cellos and bows for sale in all sizes and price ranges. Dixon describes herself as a matchmaker help
ing musicians of all skill levels, from student to professional, find the right violin and bow combination to form the perfect marriage.
The shop is located in a 1930s-era brick house in downtown Alpharetta. Violins occupy shelves, glassfront bookcases and walls throughout the space, which features a room reserved for players to try out instruments before renting or buying. There’s also a large work- shop staffed by luthiers, or experts who repair or make stringed instruments. Luthiers study violin-mak- ing and restoration all over the world under some of the most noted craftsmen.
“Some of the violins we’re working on now are very old and very valuable, and our luthiers are some of the best in the world at bringing
them back to their original look and sound,” Dixon says. “This is a tradition that you won’t find practiced in many places, and we’re proud that we can provide this kind of expertise and service.”
Dixon, an Alabama native, learned to play piano at age 7. Her mother urged her to take up violin as a teenager before going off to college, where she received a bachelor’s degree in music com- position and later a master’s degree in audio production.
Always wanting to share her musical knowledge with others, she taught violin, piano and beginning com- position at her own teaching studio while still in college. Yet Dixon landed audio production work at a Marietta studio after graduate school.
“I realized that’s not howI wanted to spend my career,” Dixon recalls. “I wanted to go back into a career in strings.” Strings, meaning her love
of the violin, bass, cello and
viola. In 2002, she started teaching orchestra students how to play those instru- ments at Fulton County ele-
mentary schools while also maintaining a private violin studio. Dixon and other music teachers would travel to two or three North Fulton schools per day.
The school system discontinued the program in 2010, leaving Dixon devastated. “I loved my job,” she says.
A great number of her former elementary school students are now Beau Vinci clients. “I see kids that I (taught) in the fourth grade and they are in college now or in their careers and still playing,” Dixon says.
Beau Vinci gets an influx of more than 200 new students looking to rent instruments every school year.
“We’re proud of the number of students that we’ve helped get started in music and playing the violin,” Dixon says. “Beau Vinci really is a special place. I want more people in the community to know that we’re here and to come see what we have to offer.”