Benoît Rolland

Benoît Rolland (b. Sept 12, 1954) is an internationally renowned French bow maker (archetier), a MacArthur Fellow (2012) and 2017 Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters). In 2003, Rolland permanently relocated to the United States and currently works from his home studio in Boston, Massachusetts. Throughout his career, Rolland created approx. 2000 handmade Pernambuco bows for violin, viola, and cello—commissioned for such prominent musicians as Yehudi Menuhin, Leonid Kogan, Mstislav Rostropovich, Ivry Gitlis, Arthur Grumiaux, Christian Ferras, Maurice Gendron, Josef Suk, Henryk Szeryng, Stéphane Grappelli, Jaime Laredo, Jean-Pierre Wallez, Jean-Luc Ponty, Heinrich Schiff, Christian Tetzlaff, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yo-Yo Ma, Miriam Fried, Lynn Harrell, Kim Kashkashian, and Julia Fischer (4). Often plated with precious metals and encrusted with gems, Rolland's bows are recognized as art pieces. They are featured in Gardner Museum's collection and other exhibitions and auctioned at prices up to $27,000. Benoît began studying music at the age of four with his grandmother, a concert pianist Germaine Thyssens-Valentin. In 1970, after studying violin with Alfred Loewenguth and Line Talluel, he graduated from the Conservatoire de Paris and Conservatoire de Versailles. The seventeen-year-old artist gave up an aspiring soloist career and joined the historical Bow-Making School of Mirecourt to study with Bernard Ouchard (1925–1979), who is often cited as one of France's last great archetiers. Rolland graduated in 1974 and opened his first atelier in Paris a few years later. His craftsmanship and skills soon started gaining recognition, and in 1979 Benoît became the youngest ever recipient of a prestigious Meilleur Ouvrier de France award. In 1983, he received the national title of Maitre Archetier d'Art (Master of Bow-Making Arts). In the early eighties, Rolland retreated to Île-de-Bréhat, a small, secluded island a mile off Brittany's coast. While most luthiers and musicians strongly favored classicism at the time, Benoît was very concerned that a bow-making craft relies on endangered and irreplaceable Pernambuco wood. In 1991, after almost a decade of extensive research in the use of alternative hi-tech materials, Rolland presented Spiccato—the first carbon fiber bow of concert quality in history. A second innovation was a unique inner tension mechanism allowing the performer to modify the bow's camber (even while playing on stage). Other notable Rolland's innovations include Galliane bow frog presented in 2013. It sets the bow's hair at a more ergonomic angle to follow the musician's natural wrist movement, thus drastically improving the control without affecting the bow's weight or balance. Galliane frog can be installed on any existing stick, including fine historical bows. In recent years, Benoît Rolland began making conductor batons as well. The new design premiered in July 2017 by Andris Nelsons conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Since then, it has been used by several prominent maestros, such as Λεωνίδας Καβάκος, Ken-David Masur, Alan Gilbert (2), and Victor Yampolsky.