Artist Statement

The art violin, A Musical Offering,¬Ýpays homage to the history of Western art and music¬Ýand to the hope of our youth as they venture into the world.¬ÝThe violin began to take its present form with the original finish being carefully sanded away and replaced with two coats of gesso.¬ÝThe back is a Dutch countryside painted with a combination of traditional oil and modern acrylic paint. The depth and texture are a result of the media being applied in many layers in the tradition of Rembrandt and the great Dutch painters of the Golden Age (17th and 18th c). The top represents a fantasy of youthful and ancient images including toys, puppets, Gregorian chant and of course the opening of the theme from J. S. Bach's epic work, The Musical Offering.

Lucien Hut, harpsichordist and pianist, is a native of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He has enjoyed a distinguished career as a concert artist in Europe and the United States. After graduating from the Rotterdam Royal Conservatory, Mr. Hut pursued advanced studies with Victor Babin, former director of the Cleveland Institute of Music. Following this, Mr. Hut entered in the Doctoral Degree Program in Piano Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has performed extensively, taught piano and harpsichord performance in addition to composition, at the Rotterdam Royal Conservatory, Kamehameha Schools in Honolulu, Hawaii, University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Montana in Missoula, MT. Lucien Hut is also a recognized author and composer. He is co-author of A Handbook of Musical Scales with Emphasis for the Keyboard, which has been adopted for use in several leading universities in the U. S. and Canada. Also, he is a significant contributor to No Longer Silent, World-Wide Memories of the Children of World War II. Mr. Hut has served as Composer-in Residence for the Rotterdam Royal Conservatory Department of Dance, as well as composed commissioned works for the Royal Ballet Company of England, and the Netherlands Ballet Company. Always interested in the arts as a means of communication, Lucien Hut has expressed his appreciation for the beauty and forces of nature in photography and oil paintings. He has won awards in both Europe and the United States for these artistic endeavors.