Award-Winning Knoxville Fine Violins Grows, Approaches Fifth Anniversary

It’s one of many misses on my part, as I confessed to Wesley Rule, co-owner (along with his wife Lauren) of Knoxville Fine Violins at 207 Clinch Avenue. When he opened in the heart of the pandemic in 2020 wanting to sell, repair, and build violins. I really wanted him to succeed, but if I’m honest, it seemed like a very specific niche for Knoxville and maybe a longshot for a successful business here. As I have been so many times, I was completely wrong.

As detailed in the first article, Wesley is less of an East Tennessee interloper than most anyone reading this article. His family line here traces back to before the state was a state. He also has deep roots in working with wood and with instruments as his great-grandfather, Oscar Wilbur Rule, worked just off Market Square at Ledgerwood Piano, a long-since-gone music store, as a piano technician. His grandfather, Josef Fletcher Rule, built custom homes and cabinets until he died. More recently, Wesley’s father, Bradley, builds and repairs pipe organs with his company B. Rule and Company repairing most of the pipe organs in and around downtown. Interestingly, Wesley’s oldest is expressing an interest in violin making!

Wesley learned his trade at the Violin Making School of America, and became one of the first students to graduate with a focus in both making and repair. After a few years working in Little Rock, Arkansas, he and Lauren decided it was time to come home and see if Knoxville was ready for a dedicated violin shop. Turns out, their hunch was way better than my own. They packed up the three kids (they now have four) and opened a little shop on Clinch Avenue.

One of the earliest signs of good fortune for the new business came in the form of support from members of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra who had not been able to get their instruments repaired or serviced locally. That support only grew and now Wesley says they “take care of the majority of the instruments. The majority of the string players come here, and the majority of the teachers are probably coming to us.” They’ve also sold violins locally, largely after buying them at auction or other places, and rebuilding or refurbishing them. He said the majority of what they have in stock would be antique instruments, as opposed to new.

He said he gets a mix from estate sales. Some are quite disappointing and not what he’d been led to believe, while sometimes he finds jewels. “One of the oldest instruments in the shop right now is actually a viola from the 1700s that was sold at an estate auction as a violin. They couldn’t read the label because it’s a German viola, written in the 1700s in cursive German script.” They called it indecipherable, but he had it read, identified the violin maker, and found it to be a fascinating restoration project.

Their work stretches across the region, as they are the only shop like theirs in east Tennessee. He’s focused on working with the schools which have orchestra programs. “We do a lot of work in Kingsport, Johnson City, Knox County, and Blount County (Maryville).” They also work with the Oak Ridge Schools and beyond. “We sold instruments (to them) and we’ve done repairs. We were just at ETSU for a chamber music festival.”

One of the factors enabling them to reach out to extended communities is the growth in staff. When the shop opened, Wesley worked full time and Lauren worked part time. That has continued, but they’ve also added Wyatt Galarneau full time as an associate luthier, Laura Twilley part-time to handle rentals (she’s also learning to re-string bows), and Wesley Hitch who works part time on social media.

Wyatt started work in the shop fresh out of violin school (the same school as Wesley attended), where he won highest honors. Originally from Raleigh, North Carolina, he’d worked as an apprentice with a luthier for years while in high school. He was recommended to Wesley and sat for a bench test (doing repairs as an interview) while still in school. He graduated in January and began work at the shop in February 2024.

He’s since won honors for his violin making from the Southern Violin Maker’s Association, taking second and third place (two violins) for craftsmanship and won the Southern Maker Award for highest total points at the competition, as well as the novice award. Wesley won the same recognition several years ago, making this likely the only shop in the south that can claim multiple winners. Wyatt pointed out that the person he lost to sells his violins for $30,000 and was just featured in The Strad magazine, so he didn’t feel too badly losing to him.

With the growth in staff, particularly having two full-time luthiers, came the need for more space. Fortunately, the adjacent space opened up (when William & Wylie moved to a larger location) and they now have two work areas, as well as more storage for cases, instruments, and other sundry pieces of the trade. With about twice their original square footage, it also allowed them to expand services into things like bow restoration. It’s something you can’t find in a lot of shops.

Wesley pointed out that the schools with orchestra programs seem to have a lot of families who may have come from bigger cities where strings where those programs were an expectation. Eastman-Kodak in Kingsport, the labs in Oak Ridge, Alcoa in the Maryville area all bring in people from all over the world and those systems, along with west Knoxville high schools and L&N Academy, have vibrant orchestra programs. He also noted the changes in Knoxville and thinks that has fueled interest.

“During Covid and post-Covid, we’ve had a population boom, for better or worse. It also brings in people who expect orchestra programs in public schools.” He said it’s simply normal that a larger population brings in people of all sorts, including those who are interested in the arts and music. He said he clearly feels the difference over the nearly five years he’s been open.

But those are violins; what about fiddles? Seriously, there is only one instrument, though classical players and bluegrass/country/old-time players may want the adjustments set a bit differently. He said they get lots of those players, too. “We’re actually going to the International Bluegrass Awards in September to set up a table. They moved it to Chattanooga . . . and there will be like 60,000 people there. We’ll be there with a table offering sales. We get a lot of bluegrass and old-time players . . . it’s important for me, as someone who grew up playing Irish music. I understand where they come from a little bit . . . We’ve had some championship fiddle players coming to us who are winning awards and medals and trophies routinely.”

As for goals, Wesley said “this year we’re focusing on solidifying what we’ve done. We’re building better high-end inventory” by making, as well as collecting. Wyatt is doing most of the building as Wesley focuses more on bows. They also want to expand into getting more violins into the hands of children from low-income families. While normal rental rates are $25 per month, they would like to offer them for less to these children. They may hook into the new String Project at the University of Tennessee so they can get lessons.

He said they still run into people who don’t realize there is a shop like theirs in the city and go to Greenville, South Carolina or Atlanta without knowing the services and instruments are available nearby. You can learn more about them at their website or follow them on Instagram. You can also drop into the shop at 207 Clinch Avenue, Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 am to 5:45 pm, or Saturday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.