Joao Varela asks about Erika Morini. Morini's career is one that combined great success with bitter personal failure. She was one of the most impressive child prodigies of her day, but throughout her adult life she felt engagements did not come her way because she was a woman and grew rather bitter about it. Although she peformed in public until she was 70, the last 20 years of her career were a shell of her former glory. In her later years I understand she became an anti-social recluse, seeing only members of her family and known for her stinginess. Toward the end of her life, she became obsessive about her famed Davidoff Strad, to no avail, as it apparently was stolen within a few days of her death. She had made quite inadequate provisions for its security, as she wanted to retain it in her possession. The instrument had not been played much for many years before she died, which may have compromised it storied acoustic properties. Only a handful of people had access to her apartment, and there was no sign of forced entry, but investigations seem to have been unproductive. In any case, the instrument cannot be sold in a public sale, nor played in public, greately reducing its resale value. Quite possibly the thief did not realize the implications of having such a famed treasure. A few months after she died, the Washington Post had a lengthy article about her and the disappearance of her violin. Much of this post is based on my memory of that article, which should still be available- for a small fee- on their website. Larry