I'm Jason Fruit, a violist from Wisconsin. A few years ago, I took a gamble: unsatisfied with my rather poor instrument, I found a viola alta by Karl Adam Hörlein for sale at auction. Having heard a couple of them, I thought, "Well, it couldn't be worse," and put in a bid. I won it, and when I received it, I was amazed at the power and intensity of the tone. As I worked with it more and more, I grew more impressed not only with its sound, but with how comfortable it was to play. I had to know more about the instrument and its inventor. Some of the results of that are on this site; more are in my book in progress, "Hermann Ritter: The First International Viola Soloist".
I would love to hear from you about problems with this site, information you can offer on Hermann Ritter and the viola alta, opportunities to speak or perform on the viola alta, or, frankly, anything else viola alta-related you may have in mind. You can contact me by email. → Jason Fruit (jfviolaalta@gmail.com)
