Tomáš Pilař was trained with his father Vladimír Pilař between1969 and 1973. Also the influence of his grandfather was very supportive while Karel Pilař was still restoring many valuable instruments at those days. After the military service he passed the entrance exam for The Czech Association of Violin Makers in 1975 and started his independent career in the family studio. He mostly made new instruments for the Czech young artists generation. Already in 1976 he won Silver Medal at the 1st Triennale Internationale in Cremona and a year later he got the Gold Medal at the traditional international violin-makers competition in Poznaň (Poland), Golden Groblicz Prize for the most artistic individuality and several special prizes. At that time Tomáš Pilař learned the bow-making with Herberta Leicht. Later he improved his bow-making skills with Hans-Karl Schmidt in Dresden and with Michael Taylor n London. Nevertheless he does not make new bows in his studio. He rather exploits this experience while restoring old bows and this is the field he is the looked for expert. After the violin-maker-in-resident at Ealing Strings company in 1986 he makes in his family studio mostly new violins, violas and cellos, occasionally he restores precious old instruments and bows. Being stimulated by Jiří Heger, the 1st violist of Singapore Symphony Orchestra, he made the five-string viola quinton in 1987, which has been already recorded on 2 CD. The instrument provoked a great response and Tomáš Pilař built some more quintons since that.
Tomáš Pilař makes instruments for soloists and chamber players. Many of them sound in quartets, for instance 2-3 in reputable Pražák Quartet. The Singapore Tang Quartet performing in USA uses completely Tomáš Pilař´s instruments. He likes making instruments for young artists who get acquainted to new instruments without prejudices. Interpreters appreciate the high and stable sound standard of his instruments which is achieved by applying the most advanced methods for boards-tuning and by construction adapting to material features of used wood. The three-generation Pilař family experience is very important for developing the "sense of wood" and its acoustic exercise. Varnish plays the important role in the instrument sound too, giving the tone its roundness, softness and finesse. A quality varnish can support the good construction, and - on the contrary - a poor varnish can completely degrade it. Even the best varnish, however, cannot save the bad construction. Tomáš Pilař appreciates the deal of his father who spent the life working on improving and stability of tone quality of instruments. Even thanks to him the Pilař family violin-makers are today able to meet the individual demands on the violin and viola tone color.
Tomáš Pilař builds violins on customer’s wish according to Stradivari or Guarneri model. For viola he uses his own model in size between 39 cm to 42 cm while he suggests the size 40,7 cm. For cello he accepted Antonio Stradivari model of 1717. He can also slightly age instruments.
Like his father Vladimír Pilař, co-author of Czech violin-makers compendium “Umění houslařů” , Tomáš Pilař collects the data of Czech violin-makers schools on the Bohemia territory. In the Studio archive there are already hundreds of descriptions and photos of precious Czech instruments being restored in the Pilař Studio.
Tomáš Pilař trained his daughter Šárka who has been building her own instruments in the family Studio since 1998. She continues using the same models and methods as her father does.
International Competitions Prizes and Awards
1976 Trienalle internazionale Cremona, Italy - violin, 2nd Prize and Silver Medal
1977 Wieniawski Poznaň, Poland - Golden Groblicz, Gold Medal
1985 Int’l Competition in Hradec Králové - 3 Golden Medals
International Jury Membership
1996 Poznaň, Poland
1997 Metelka, Náchod
Pilar,Tomas
