Building stringed instruments, a new life and a family business

If you’re seeking a personification of the classic American success story, look no further than Abbas Selgi.

Selgi, 57, owns Terra Nova Violins, a high-end shop where he sells, rents and repairs classical instruments — some valued into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Before the pandemic, his employees would give lessons at the shop, a service they now provide online via Zoom. But

Selgi said he hoped to bring students back in person sometime soon.

Selgi came to the U.S. from

Iran in the mid-1990s, years after his family fled the country in the wake of the Iranian revolution. A trained luthier — a maker of stringed instruments — he’s worked his way up from operating out of his San Antonio home’s garage to opening his main shop along Blanco Road in 2006. In 2016, he opened a second Terra Nova location in Austin.

After weathering the pandemic, and with schools and their musical programs reopening, Selgi said business is reviving. Now, he said, he’s focused on getting his two sons trained in the profession to eventually take over the family business.

Selgi spoke with the ExpressNews about the history of Terra Nova and emerging from the pandemic. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Q: How did you come to start Terra Nova?

A: I immigrated in 1996. I came to the U.S. from Iran, and worked

for a local business here for a short time, and after that we moved to Austin. I started working at a business in Austin. I was a luthier, a repairman and doing some restoration. I worked for someone. I was there until 2002, when my boys were born. After that, I moved to San Antonio, and I bought a house and worked in the garage of the house and still

commuted to Austin.

Q: What brought you to San Antonio?

A: I have family in San Antonio. My brothers, everybody, is living in San Antonio. We are a military family. After the (Iranian) revolution, we came here because the revolution was not too nice to us. Until 2006, I commuted back and

forth to Austin every day until everything was good and I saw it was the time to open a business. We’ve been here since then. We have two shops right now, one shop in Austin and one in San Antonio. We also do some business in Houston, and we serve pretty much all of Texas from the Valley to the Houston and Dallas areas.

Q:

How were you able to open your own business in 2006?

A: I had a really good business plan and I put everything in a paper and gave it to the Small Business Administration. And the SBA gave me a pretty good loan to start with. And that was the thing. I couldn’t do anything without the SBA. Starting we got

Jerry Lara / Staff photographer Abbas Selgi, who fled Iran in the 1990s, is owner of Terra Nova Violins. He learned his craft in secret, in a basement in Iran.