South End String Instrument. A Rich Cultural Legacy of Musical Craftmanship from the Cape Verdean Islands: South End String Instrument
Roosevelt Pires, born on the Cape Verde Islands, and one of the best-known string instrument builders in the United States, stands in his small studio at South End’s Boston Center for the Arts on Tremont Street where he holds a 1790s Portuguese violin in his hands. A customer recently traveled to Boston from Portugal to have Roosevelt repair it. “I am going to make it sing again,” he says. “It needs to be French-polished.”
In the crowded BCA shop of South End String Instrument, where Roosevelt has spent his days since 1999, rows of violins hang from the walls, between thick tails of long black and white strands of horsehair. He says he prefers tail hair of Mongolian stallions for the rehairing of his bows, which allows for the seasonal shrinkage and expansion the New England climate requires. Another shop corner is stacked three cases-deep with a multitude of different-sized string instruments, waiting for repairs. “The kids from the Boston Community Music Center,” he explains; Covid closed their music program in 2019, so he still has time before the instruments are needed.
Roosevelt was brought to Boston in 1979 as a teenager from the Cape Verdean Island of Brava, off the west coast of Africa, by his father, Ivo Pires, who had emigrated to Boston in 1967. The father had an established reputation as a self-taught string instrument maker and violinist who had built his first mandolin when he was nine, using cedar shingles from his mother’s house. Roosevelt was being raised by Ivo’s mother on Brava while his father was working as an instrument maker for various companies in Boston.
When Roosevelt arrived here, his father enrolled him at Cathedral High School in the South End; Roosevelt spoke only Portuguese and Creole. The nuns would translate sentences from English into Spanish; it was close enough to Portuguese, so he could figure out what the likely meaning was. After the school day ended, “Rosie,” as his father called him affectionately, would run to Ivo’s violin workshop where he learned everything about string instruments from the master craftsman himself.
At age fifteen, Roosevelt worked on the bow of YoYo Ma. A photograph of the young Roosevelt holding the world-famous cellist’s bow, is mounted on the South End String Instrument’s wall, next to a signed one of YoYo Ma himself.
Roosevelt’s workspace in front of the large window overlooking Tremont Street is covered with clamps for gluing cracked musical instruments, violins in various states of repair, and wood planers in sizes ranging from as small as a ring to as large as two hands. Some of the wood in his shop dates back hundreds of years, says Roosevelt, showing samples of cedar and spruce so dry they are light as a feather. “Wood for instrument building has to be 35 years old at least,” he says, “it has to be seasoned and dry, so it’s ready to go.” He frowns on string instruments mass-produced with wood that has been oven dried.
Roosevelt has taught string instrument and bow making to students 12 years and up, and older ones, at the BCA and the Cambridge School of Adult Education. He is looking forward to teaching more soon, as public health requirements allow.
Mr. Pires can be reached at 617 292-7788 or by email at Roosevelt.63.p@gmail.com. South End String Instrument is located at 551 Tremont Street, #201.