Silent warrior. Underdog. Middle voice. These are the generous words that describe the viola, the string instrument accustomed to the shadows, and to the relentless jokes. Violists rarely get a chance ...

John Cage would be pleased: If you listen very carefully, you may hear a world record shatter. In sealed bidding expected to end this week, auctioneers Sotheby’s and Ingles & Hayday have been taking ...

At the Library of Congress last month, Roberto Díaz was playing on an exceedingly rare viola. What didn’t cross his mind, he says, is just how much the hunk of maple and spruce clutched beneath his ...

A musical note unheard for more than 300 years will resonate again this weekend, the true voice of the seven-string viola da gamba, copied by generations of instrument makers unwittingly using the ...

It’s late autumn — viola time. The viola should perhaps be the instrument of summer. Its tone suggests sumptuous ripeness from the top of its range to bottom. But falling between the violin’s soaring ...

In May, Roberto Díaz performed at the US Library of Congress using a rare viola made by Antonio Stradivari in 1690. Called the Tuscan-Medici viola, it is now valued at $30 million, possibly the ...