 
We are proud to announce
that The Violin Shop of Old Carmel’s
owner, Alex Leyvand, has won the Better Business
Bureau Ethics Award! Once Alex was invited
to enter into the competition earlier this
summer, we worked very hard to prove his
ethics. With the help of several moving
letters from happy customers, students,
and charities, Alex was nominated and awarded.
We were thrilled to hear that Alex won
the award and hope to continue to improve
our services.
Violin Instructions to include
musical theory
By Lesley
Rogers Barrett
lesley.rogers.barrett@indystar.com
Alexander Leyvand doesn’t
just want to teach children to play the violin.
The Russian-born Carmel
resident wants to make sure students understand
the history and theory behind the music.
"If you play violin
and you don't know the history of it ...
like composers, timing, style, then you
know nothing," Leyvand said."What's
the point of playing violin? It's like
living in the world and not knowing the
history of the world."
Leyvand, 56, who moved
to Indianapolis from Russia in 1989
with
his family,opened The Violin Shop in 1991.
Now, he's planning to open a school by
early next year in the Meridian Design
Center, 12955 Old Meridian St., which is
just around the corner from The Violin
Shop at
1001
W. Main St.
"We teach lessons
here, but the school will be different," he
said. "We
will have theory classes,music history,
chamber music classes and orchestra music."
In 1979, Leyvand stopped
playing professionally and started making
instruments. Even though his Carmel shop
has become successful, Leyvand still makes
about five violins and cellos a year, spending
months at a time on the instruments in
his workshop.
He said he still uses
some of the now 30-year-old wood that he
brought with him from Russia.
"It's good wood," he said.
Leyvand and his wife,
Irina, and daughter
Masha, now 27, settled in Indianapolis
because they figured with large universities
nearby, it would be easy for Irina,
a doctor, to get a job. She is an assistant
professor at the Indiana University School
of Dentistry.
Carmel has been a welcoming
home for Leyvand, who chose it after driving
through Old Town
one day.
"I love downtown
(Carmel). It's so charming," Leyvand
said.
The transition from Russia
to Indiana wasn't easy, but the family
quickly settled
in and found work.
"The language was
probably the hardest," Leyvand
said.
Leyvand's father, Emil
Leyvand, who is now 81, lives on the Northside
and played the violin professionally for
most of his life. He was a violinist and
concertmaster
of the USSR Symphony Orchestra of
Radio and Television.
The family has donated
string instruments to the music enrichment
program at The Children's Museum, and Emil
Leyvand has given several free performances
in the community.
The music school
will be a not-for-profit organization
and will offer scholarships and free
rentals to students who can't afford
the lessons.
The school, which will
cater to ages 6 to adult, is for serious
study, Leyvand stressed. It will better
prepare students who
want to study music in college, he said.
Several teachers from area colleges already
have committed to participating, he
said.
 Leyvand
believes it's important for
students to master and understand classical
music, which he said is the foundation
for all music.
"Most kids don't
like classical music because they don't
understand it," he said. "Classical
is a base, it's a foundation. If you can
play classical music, you can play anything."
For more information
on the music school, contact Leyvand at
The Violin Shop at 818-2326.
The Violin Shop in Carmel
was one of five central Indiana businesses
to receive the Better Business Bureau 2005
Business Ethics Award during a banquet
at the Indianapolis Downtown Marriott.
The purpose of the award,
established in 1997, is to recognize for-profit
business committed to maintaining exceptionally
high standards of ethical behavior in buyer
and seller relationships.
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