SLC woman ensures violins, violas made by her late husband will end up in right hands.

By ROXANA ORELLANA

| The Salt Lake Tribune

They are under the bed, in the closets, in the hallway and the basement.

Peggy Clark’s late husband Homer Clark loved woodworking and the many violins and violas tucked throughout her Salt Lake City home are the results.

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Now, thanks to her, the idea of handmade hand-me-downs never sounded so good.

With no plans to start her own orchestra, Clark is donating some of the instruments so they can be used by promising musicians.

"I don’t want them to be in somebody’s closet," Clark said, adding she wants them to go to people who will appreciate and use them. "Violins are not any good unless they are played. They get better with playing."

Clark will donate 15 violins and four violas to the South Shore Conservatory in Hingham, Mass. The 19 instruments are never to be sold and will be loaned or given to advanced students to use.

"My husband would have much preferred that I tried to sell them, but this is the next best thing," Clark said, adding that there are just too many. "That’s why I am only giving them away to worthy people."

Clark still has part of the collection for sale at Scoggins & Scoggins Violin Shop in Salt Lake City and noted that giving them away locally would devalue those for sale.

Homer Clark, who died close to two years ago at 88, picked up the violin-making skills on a trip with one his patients, millionaire Howard Hughes.

It was on that trip that Homer Clark — a pathologist, painter and music lover — met a physician in Canada who was into violin-making as a hobby.

"My husband ran with it. He never did anything in a small way," Clark said, describing what became her husband’s passion when he was 50 and continued for 28 years. "He just loved it. He loved working with his hands. He would just make them and make them."

Clark is not sure of the total violin, viola or cello production count. It could be up to 100. Her husband, who didn’t play the instrument, entered and won violin-making competitions. He also sold and traded some of his creations throughout the years and in his travels.

The instruments chosen for the South Shore donation were picked after being evaluated from a collection of more than 30.

"It’s very generous of her," said Jack Ashton, Utah Symphony violinist, of Clark’s donation. Ashton helped evaluate the quality of the violins and violas by rating them as very good, excellent or outstanding.

"I found it very interesting that a man who had another occupation, had such love for making violins," Ashton said. "And the thing that is really interesting is that there is such diversity in quality of output, tone and so forth."

Ashton, who knew the violin maker, said that from looking at the work and time that went into the instruments, it’s clear Homer Clark enjoyed what he was doing. "He was real wheeler-dealer with the violins," Ashton said.

Clark is glad to see 19 of her late-husband’s instruments go to a place where they will be used. "I feel like it is honoring my husband and the worth of these instruments if they are going to be used, instead of having them in a closet somewhere."