The Strad Directory 2026
Updated and expanded for 2026, the latest edition of The Strad Directory is as indispensable as ever, remaining an essential and ever-popular resource for the string world. It provides you with everything you need to fulfil your stringed instrument needs.
If you would like your business or organisation to be included in The Strad's Directory online and in print, please complete the information here and we will be in touch.
Masterclass Bundle Volumes 1 & 2: Violin Concertos & Violin Works
** SAVE £10 **
For the first time, you can now purchase our bestseller Masterclass Volume 1: Violin Concertos along with our brand new Masterclass Volume 2: Violin Works, together as a bundle. The Strad’s Masterclass series brings together the finest string players with some of the greatest string works ever written. Always one of our most popular sections, Masterclass has been an invaluable aid to aspiring soloists, chamber musicians and string teachers since the 1990s.
Masterclass Volume 2: Violin WorksÂ
The second volume in The Strad's best-selling Masterclass series brings together some of the greatest pieces ever written for the violin, along with commentary by many of the world's leading soloists. James Ehnes, Jennifer Koh, Philippe Graffin, Carolin Widmann, Daniel Hope and Arabella Steinbacher are among the artists passing on their hints and tips, as well as explaining their interpretations of works by Bach, Beethoven, Ravel, Tchaikovsky and many more. In addition, every artist has annotated the sheet music with their own bowings, fingerings and comments on the music – provided in association with G. Henle Verlag.
Great Instruments 3
This third volume in The Strad’s Great Instruments series brings together the finest scholarship, research and analysis by some of the world’s leading experts on stringed instruments. Among the highlights are a detailed look at the 1741 ‘Vieuxtemps’ violin by Guarneri ‘del Gesù’, including an acoustic analysis by Joseph Curtin and an interview with its player, Anne Akiko Meyers. There’s also a rare examination of the ‘Boissier, Sarasate’, one of two Stradivari violins formerly owned by Pablo Sarasate, which rarely leaves its current home, the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid. And we examine some of the most extraordinary restoration jobs on fine instruments in history: the ‘Mara’ Stradivari cello, almost consigned to a watery grave, and the ‘Paravicini’ Stradivari, which took more than a year to restore to its former glory.
Full list of featured instruments
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Antonio Stradivari ‘Mara’ cello, 1711
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Antonio Stradivari ‘Cecil’ violin, 1724
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violin, 1732
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Giuseppe Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ ‘Paravicini’ violin, 1734
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Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume ‘Evangelists’ quartet, 1863
The Strad Directory 2025
Updated and expanded for 2025, the latest edition of The Strad Directory is as indispensable as ever, remaining an essential and ever-popular resource for the string world. It provides you with everything you need to fulfil your stringed instrument needs.
If you would like your business or organisation to be included in The Strad's Directory online and in print, please complete the information here and we will be in touch.
BUNDLE-The Best of Trade Secrets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6
The Best of Trade Secrets 6
The April 2005 edition of The Strad saw the first in a new regular section: Trade Secrets, in which violin and bow makers would share the technical tips and tricks that they’d worked out for themselves and wanted to share with their peers. Almost two decades later, Trade Secrets is still a mainstay of the magazine, having featured over 200 fully illustrated parts of the making process penned by more than 140 makers around the world. This latest collection brings together 35 of the most recent articles, drawn from the magazine’s pages since the pandemic year of 2020.
The Strad Directory 2024
BUNDLE – In Focus and In Focus 2
The In Focus anthologies brings together many of the world’s most fascinating stringed instruments, with commentaries by today’s top instrument experts.
Both books feature exceptional high-quality photographs for every featured instrument – front, back and scroll – and will provide inspiration for today’s makers and anyone who enjoys the beauty and variety of stringed instruments.
This bundle includes:
- In Focus (with new limited edition cover)
- In Focus 2
The Strad Directory 2023
Masterclass Volume 1: Violin Concertos
The Strad’s Masterclass series brings together the finest string players with some of the greatest string works ever written. Always one of our most popular sections, Masterclass has been an invaluable aid to aspiring soloists, chamber musicians and string teachers since the 1990s. Now, in association with publisher G. Henle Verlag, The Strad is releasing the best of its Masterclasses as a bespoke anthology series.
The Strad Directory 2022
The Strad Directory 2021
The Best of Trade Secrets 5
The Strad Directory 2020
In Focus 2
The Strad ’s second compilation of fascinating articles, written within the last 5 years, brings together fine instruments by some of the world’s greatest instrument experts. In this new anthology, every instrument has been given three pages to include more close-up photographs, archings, angles and tiny details.
The Best of Technique
BUNDLE – The Best of Trade Secrets 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
The Best of Trade Secrets 4
The Strad Masterclass: Solo Violin
James Ehnes, Hilary Hahn, Leonidas Kavakos, Maxim Vengerov, Nikolaj Znaider: some of the violin world's top names have given their thoughts on key works of string repertoire within The Strad's pages. Now, for the first time, Masterclass: Solo Violin brings together articles from the magazine's popular Masterclass section over the past nine years.
The Strad Masterclass: Solo Cello
Cello Heroes
Steven Isserlis, Ralph Kirshbaum, Mischa Maisky and Natalia Gutman are among the cellists featured in this special publication from The Strad. It also includes a selection of historic articles from the magazine’s archives on Pierre Fournier, Daniil Shafran, Pablo Casals, Emanuel Feuermann, Jacqueline du Pré, Gregor Piatigorsky and others.
