Professional Musician
Spends Sabbatical at Southeast
Red Wing, MN (May 11, 2026) – A professional violinist from Ottawa is preparing to wrap
up his studies at Minnesota State College Southeast.
Ethan Balakrishnan, a member of the violin
section of the Orchestre symphonique de Québec in Quebec City, took
a year-long sabbatical to pursue his studies in Southeast’s
Violin Repair and Making program.
Balakrishnan first began playing violin at
age 5, and in his mid-teens, realized his passion for music could be
his life’s work. He went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in music,
studying under Grigory Kalinovsky at the Indiana University Jacobs School
of Music.
“For my whole life I’ve had a very specific idea
of the sound I want to create, and I’ve always been obsessive about finding and
maintaining the setup parameters on my instrument that will allow me to create
this sound,” Balakrishnan said. “It’s fascinating how the tiniest change
in the most seemingly insignificant variable of an instrument’s setup can have
a huge effect on its sound and playability.”
Whether in Canada, Indiana or
Minnesota, Balakrishnan has lived in climates with cold dry winters and wet hot
summers, which wreak havoc on sensitive string
instruments.
“For most professional musicians, a poorly
adjusted instrument is a significant drain on quality of life that can start
clouding over even non-musical aspects of one’s day-to-day life if the problem
isn’t resolved quickly,” Balakrishnan said.
Balakrishnan wanted to be able to make
adjustments to his own instruments, and many of his fellow
performers indicated they would entrust him with
theirs too if he was properly trained.
He learned of
Southeast’s violin program through research, and the recommendation
of Ottawa luthier Guy Harrison, who vouched for the program because
he previously worked with instructor Stephen Rossow, and saw the
high-quality work produced by Southeast graduates.
“I’ve been impressed by just how far we’ve been
able to go with our repair skills despite coming in with zero
woodworking experience,” Balakrishnan said. “The program is very well
rounded and intelligently laid out, and Steve is a truly excellent
teacher.”
Balakrishnan said that his work has become
finer and more accurate even as the steps in the
violin-making process became more challenging. He’s come to
appreciate how the instruments work and how to repair
them, after learning how they are made.
It gives him a newfound appreciation for the
violin on loan to him from the Canimex Foundation of
Drummondville, Canada, an instrument made in 1854.
“I now find them much more interesting
to inspect visually,” he said. “I can look at certain features and
imagine what the maker did in the mid-nineteenth century to create them, and I
can even notice certain flaws and picture why and how they might have
happened.”
While he’s not allowed to work on that
instrument, he has been able to experiment on his personal viola,
which dates back to 1932. Calling it a bit of “an experimental
sandbox,” Balakrishnan has noticed an improvement by adding a new bridge and
soundpost to his viola.
In addition to honing his instrument building
and repair skills, he’s had the chance to perform as a freelance
artist with groups in the Twin Cities area, including an opportunity to
perform with Snoop Dogg during a Minnesota Vikings game last season, as well
as performances with the Joffrey Ballet and Mannheim
Steamroller.
After graduating with his diploma
in violin repair later this month, Balakrishnan plans to stop in
Ohio and learn about rehairing bows, another maintenance item
that vexes many string musicians.
When he returns home from his
sabbatical, Balakrishnan plans to continue to learn from
master luthiers in Canada, while continuing to perform regularly. His
goal is to optimize the playing experience of his fellow string
players by maintaining his technical and musical abilities and
continuing to experiment.