SVA SPRING WORKSHOP 2026 – PREREGISTRATION AND PLANNING FOR YOUR EVENT

Welcome to The SVA Spring Workshop at WildAcres Retreat! Below are the details for planning your event and registering. Exact dates are pending and will be announced soon — we encourage early preregistration to reserve your spot.

ACCOMMODATION AND MEALS

We have a total of 10 rooms available and prefer attendees choose double occupancy so that more people can attend. Rooms have 2 beds and each has an ensuite bath. Meals will be provided by WildAcres throughout the workshop — starting with dinner on the first evening and ending with breakfast on the final morning (exact dates to be confirmed).

Hotel rooms are also available in the nearby town of Little Switzerland, NC, if you prefer to stay offsite or if our onsite rooms are filled. We have physical workshop space for about 20 total attendees. Attendees staying offsite should choose the commuter fee option.

MAKERS CHOICE AWARD COMPETITION

Attendees can enter a violin and a viola in a simple “makers choice” award competition. The instruments you choose to represent your work in the competition can be of any age. Entries may not be recipients of an award in any previous competition, SVA or otherwise. The other attendees will examine entries and vote for best workmanship and tone for violin and viola. Entries will not be anonymous at voting and it is unnecessary to cover labels. Attendees can vote for any entry but their own. Awards will be made for 1st and 2nd place in workmanship and tone for each violin and viola. Entries will simply be collected on the evening of the competition.

WORKSHOP FEES

The fees include room, meals, workshop costs, and entry of instruments in the Maker’s Choice Award.

Accommodation Type	Fee
Double Occupancy	$600
Single	$900 (If Available)
Commuter	$225 (Includes no meals; lunch is additional, cost TBD onsite)

We need a deposit of $200 now to confirm your spot in the workshop. The deposit is officially nonrefundable. However, if we are able to have another person take your spot, we’ll refund your deposit.

The remainder of the fee will be collected by check at the workshop or online. A few weeks before the workshop, we’ll send you an invoice with the option to pay it online once the exact dates are finalized.

Paying the deposit…
Link for Paypal Deposit: $200 (nonrefundable after final registration deadline unless slot filled). Upon submitting the registration form you will be directed to the Paypal deposit link.

To pay by check please make the check to "Southern Violin Association" and mail to the Treasurer, Jennifer Halenar, 186 Chamberlin St., Nashville, TN 37209.

OTHER INFO

Attendees should bring their own projects to work on and the tools to do that work. Benches will be heavy-duty folding tables with wooden tops. You should bring a piece of wood to protect the top from cuts. A clamp-on light will be helpful for your bench.

We also hope all attendees will be interested in doing some part of the work on the 2 group build instruments we will be working on together — a Strad “Titian” and a del Gesù “Plowden.” We’ll be finishing outlines, arching plates, and proceeding from there with work on the plates, as well as carving the 2 scrolls. You should bring tools for the steps you are most interested in helping with.

If you are traveling by air, just bring the bare minimum tools and we’ll share amongst the group.

We’ll have a few major shared tools available to all, provided by attendees living close by — a small band saw, sharpening equipment, big clamps, etc. If you have something you specifically hope is in the shared tools, reach out to workshop@southernviolinassociation.com.

We’ll have at least one “gather around the bench and share” activity each day. If you have something you want to share – a tool, a technique, a history topic, whatever – please let us know at workshop@southernviolinassociation.com. If you have a question that you think might be useful for the group to discuss, that can be a sharing topic as well.

The weather at this altitude in the Blue Ridge Mountains is “early Spring.” It can be warm, cool, wet, or dry, so plan for a wide range of weather. We’ll be walking around outside between the several buildings we use.

If you have other questions, just reach out to workshop@southernviolinassociation.com.