Launching The Podcast Series
Sustainability & The Future of Violin- Making
V. RICHELIEU & VERMONT VIOLINS NEWSROOM – Do you truly know where your instrument's wood comes from?
If you ask a global paper mill or a major commercial flooring corporation where their timber was harvested, they can provide precise geopolitical coordinates and tracking chain-of-custody data. You may not always like their environmental answers, but the data exists.
“Sustainably Sourced” has become a hot political topic worldwide.
Driven in large part by climate change, the desire to control extreme temperatures and storm cycles by protecting forest ecosystems has become a prime directive for the European Union. The EU is in turn mandating this directive on wood exporters around the world. With or without the regulatory pressure, we see increasing public pressure to protect forest systems reflected in the consumer marketplace. Packaging in grocery stores is a poster child for sustainable sourcing with FSC and SFI logos tattooed across products from Cat litter to cardboard milk cartons to toilet paper. Lumber supply stores have SFI plastered across 2x4s and plywood and Starbucks coffee cups have FSC logos. And yet, violin makers have stepped out of the game.
As an industry reliant for hundreds of years on slow growing temperate and tropical tree species, we are particularly vulnerable to the ecological disruption accompanying climate. There is no consensus. The guitar industry has grappled with sustainable wood sourcing for over a decade, with debatable success. To be or not to be: sustainably certified, plantation owners, land owners the debates go deep. Taylor guitars has a beautiful video discussing the benefits of sustainably sourcing wood, but the means for achieving that end are unconvincing. As individual companies and luthiers we can claim low impact on wood resources and act independently. But when you add up worldwide the number of luthiers, musicians, and economic dollars traded – the lack of a coordinated sustainability definition and outside audits for confirmation foretell the continued addition of endangered species like Pernambuco, “ebony”, ivory, tortoiseshell. The more restricted the species, the greater the value, the stronger the desire to have that “unavailable” species. CITES now restricts the international trade of over 300 species listed as endangered species used by the music industry.
The conversations in these podcasts provide background and introduce the questions we need to discuss – together. What does sustainable wood sourcing look like? What government restrictions promote sustainable wood sourcing? Are plantations sustainable or are they agriculture? Are we developing short-term or long-term solutions? What physical qualities of the wood we choose genetic or environmentally driven? What sound qualities are we looking for, and will the students we teach now want the same “sound” we identify as optimal today?
The debates are critical to the future of violin making. Handing the decisions to a handful of people limits our community buy-in. Long-term, our adherence to the limits depends on on our comprehension of what wood we use, where it comes from, and the environmental & genetic factors that foster these species’ existence. Nature is complex.
To break this cycle of anonymity and establish absolute transparency, V. Richelieu owner Kathy Reilly and Head of Manufacturing Ceile Kronick, with the official support of the Violin Society of America (VSA) and the Alliance International, have co-created a groundbreaking investigative podcast series.
- Podcast Series: Sustainability and The Future of Violin-Making
- Co-Hosts: Kathy Reilly (Owner) & Ceile Kronick (Head of Manufacturing)
- Production Partner: Supported by the Violin Society of America (VSA)
- Core Focus: Supply Chain Traceability, Ethical Forestry, and CITES/Lacey Act Compliance
The One-in-a-Thousand Tree: The Rarity of Tonewood
The podcast series pulls back the curtain on an uncomfortable truth: instrument-grade tonewood is a vanishingly select commodity. It requires specific microclimates, slow growth rings, perfectly straight grain geometry, and minimal resin pockets.
Across these episodes published to date, Kathy and Ceile interview the frontline stewards of this resource—loggers, independent landowners, state forestry directors, and international conservationists—to highlight the elite regimes working to keep acoustic forests alive.
Global Field Dispatches: Meet the Foresters
The series features deep-dive interviews with distinct logging and land-management operations, revealing contrasting but deeply respectful approaches to the timber trade:
TONEWOOD SWITZERLAND
In this episode of Future of Violin Making, Kathy Reilly and Richard Guler explore the deep roots and modern realities of Swiss alpine forestry, offering a unique perspective on how large-scale sawmill and logging operations intersect with the world of fine instruments.
MOUNTAIN VOICE TONEWOOD
In this episode of Future of Violin Making, Kathy Reilly interviews Sarah from Mountain Voice Tonewood to shed light on the intricacies of logging and forestry in Canada, and what it takes to run a multi-generational tonewood business.
RICK BASS: CLIMATE PRESERVES
In this episode of Future of Violin Making, Ceile Kronick interviews acclaimed author and activist Rick Bass to explore what it truly means to preserve a plot of old-growth forest, and why doing so is critical to the larger ecosystem and the long-term health of forests nationwide.
ANNIE PERKINS & THE SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY INITIATIVE (SFI)
What does sustainable wood sourcing actually look like on the ground? Annie Perkins joins us to break down the practical side of the industry: defining true sustainability, mitigating climate change, and monitoring complex supply chains. Since the early 1990s, SFI has been building robust, verifiable supply chains for commercial wood suppliers. Now, we explore how that exact framework could be applied to the specialized world of violin and instrument making.
We want our community to play magnificent, responsive instruments that deliver the transformative gift of music. However, that artistic joy must never come at the expense of a degraded planet. By profiling the ethical foresters, loggers, and scientists who stand at the very beginning of the instrument-making timeline, this series honors the individuals who set the stage for our luthiers to shape the future of sound.
This article was released by V. Richelieu on June 3, 2026. For media inquiries, product information access, or scheduling availability regarding our imported instrument collections, contact us directly at info@vrichelieu.com or text us at 802 648 6371