YORK — The 40 violins headed to Waller Mill Elementary this fall won’t be brown or even wooden. They’ll be purple and yellow — the school’s colors — and made of a bioplastic material derived from cornstarch.
Each instrument is crafted one tiny layer at a time on a 3D printer at the James City County Library, emerging in three pieces that easily fit together. One violin takes about 24 hours to complete and costs less than $40 to produce.
For 20 students in a new afterschool program spearheaded by the Williamsburg Youth Orchestra, the instruments will be free. The yearlong pilot program will give two violins to each selected third- through fifth-grader at Waller Mill, a fine-arts magnet school — one for hourlong lessons on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, the second for at-home practice.
The school plans to prioritize students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds during a September application process, reaching kids who would not otherwise have access to music lessons, Principal Khrista Brownlee said.
“We’re excited to expose even more students to the arts, in this case string instruments,” Brownlee said. “My own son used to play violin, and it helped him with so many things: memorization, hand-eye coordination, music appreciation and more. Hopefully, we’ll see this effort succeed and expand to other schools.”
Waller Mill administrators plan to advertise the program through online platforms and a display case with prototype instruments near the main office. The school’s activities buses can provide transportation home.
The program is largely funded by a $10,000 grant to the Williamsburg Youth Orchestra from the Charles S. & Millicent P. Brown Family Foundation, a private nonprofit. Three local residents, the late Nanci Bond and Paul D. Try and Linda Kligman-Try, provided additional donations.
The violin is an ideal way to introduce string instruments to students in York County Public Schools, noted Tanya Song, WYO’s executive director. WYO draws local students from third through 12th grade for its annual performance seasons.
“Kids can pick skills up quickly, and by third grade they’re ready to learn the unnatural position to play violin,” Song said. “You need a little more breath strength for wind and brass instruments, but the violin can open doors to many other instruments.”
The 3D printed violins are nearly identical in shape and weight to traditional wooden violins, which can cost $200 to $400 for a basic model. The printer also can be programmed to make smaller or larger instruments based on individual student size and arm length.
And while the sound is not exactly the same, experienced musicians describe it as close enough for beginners. “It’s a good sound, and you play these violins just the same way,” said Jena Chenkin, a violist with the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra who will be the main instructor at the Waller Mill program. “It’s really quite amazing.”
Mary Dart Jackson, a former orchestra teacher at Jamestown and Lafayette high schools and the program’s assistant instructor, added: “It’s a sweet, thinner sound that isn’t quite as loud and doesn’t project quite as much, but for this purpose it’s perfect.”
The Williamsburg Regional Library has eight 3D printers between its two branches. The machines have created everything from nametags and children’s toys to plastic shields for medical facemasks and replacement wheels for library vacuum cleaners.
The printer that is making violins arrived in February and is much larger and more advanced than the other two at the Croaker branch. Ben Strohm, Williamsburg Regional Library’s youth services director, worked with Chenkin to tweak instrument designs and materials to get the best acoustic qualities.
The selected bioplastic, called PLA Pro, is both stiff and lightweight. “Those are the same qualities you want if you’re making a violin out of wood in the traditional way,” Strohm explained. “It’s also fairly inexpensive and comes in all sorts of cool colors.”
The motor-powered printer melts and lays down material in lines that are just a quarter of a millimeter thick, incrementally building and fusing the layers to replicate a pre-programmed model. The instruments feel warm when first finished, much like paper from a copier.
The violin’s body takes about 17 hours to print, the neck another seven hours and the small bridge that helps support strings a final 30 minutes. Strohm often turns on the printer in the morning and leaves it running with only a few checks during the day.
At Waller Mill, students will learn to pluck notes to simple songs such as “Hot Cross Buns” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb” before picking up a bow. Chenkin has been collecting donated bows, while Strohm has found $15 string sets on Amazon. Students also will receive cases and learn how to care properly for their instruments.
Come spring, Waller Mill plans to hold a concert where students can show off their skills before returning their violins to the school for use in future years.
If the lessons are a hit, the youth orchestra hopes to raise money to continue offering them at Waller Mill, as well as possibly expand to other local schools and/or help pay for private music instruction for deserving students. Brownlee also would like students to watch a 3D printing demonstration to add a STEM educational component.
“A lot of youth orchestras around the country are just beginning to explore programs like this,” Song said. “We’re very proud to be a smaller-town group that is helping lead the way to improve access to the arts for all children.”
To learn more about the Williamsburg Youth Orchestra and the new afterschool violin program at Waller Mill Elementary School, visit wyomusic.org.
Alison Johnson, ajohnsondp@yahoo.com
