229-year-old violin donated to University of Victoria

VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) _ When Sharon Stanis put her bow to the 229-year-old violin, 97-year-old Vernon Smith began waving his hand as if to conduct. <br><br>Then came the tears, for him and for

Thursday, December 7th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) _ When Sharon Stanis put her bow to the 229-year-old violin, 97-year-old Vernon Smith began waving his hand as if to conduct.

Then came the tears, for him and for many of the other 50 seniors an extended-care hospital cafeteria.

Smith recently donated the $33,000 violin to the University of Victoria, where Stanis teaches. In gratitude, she performed ``The Swan'' by Camille Saint-Saens and three other compositions to about 50 seniors.

Smith, an English-born violinist and violist who moved to Winnipeg as a child, began violin lessons at age 8 and bought the instrument made by Giovanni Battista Lolio for $500 Canadian from music teacher Lou Turner in 1924.

``He said: `I need some money,''' said Smith, who also gave Turner his old violin in the deal. ``I knew from the tone that this was a special instrument, so I bought it.''

He had planned to leave the instrument to the university in his will, hospital spokeswoman Donna Prelypchan said.

``He knew he would never play it again,so he decided to give it away now because it would give someone else pleasure,'' she said.

At the university, the violin will be available to faculty and graduate students for special concerts.

``A beautiful violin is something most students want to be able to play, but they can't afford it at this point,'' Stanis said. ``A good violin will teach you a lot. It's a beautiful violin.''