Boris Odio de Granda graduated from Miami University (Oxford, OH) in 1986 with a BFA in graphic design, a minor in photography, and a concentration in traditional printmaking. The following years were spent pursuing an advertising art career; first working as a freelance designer, and then later recruited by Ameritech Publishing in Cleveland to hold a position in their art department. This career direction however, eventually became artistically unrewarding, and Boris began to search for other outlets for his creativity.
As his father had already been for nearly thirty years a violinist with the Cleveland Orchestra (hired under Szell as the assistant concertmaster), it was only a matter of time before violin making was explored. Discovering he could combine many of his own interests (the sciences, aesthetics, and music) into one project, Boris enrolled in the Violin Making School of America in Salt Lake City. For two of his student years he was employed in the instrument repair shop adjoining the School, and then a year before his graduation he accepted an invitation to join the faculty, where for the following three years he instructed varnish application, tonal evaluation, and instrument set-up. Exploring varnish from a purist's point of view, his research into using traditional ingredients and methods earned him an invitation to speak at the Vernix2000 Varnish Symposium in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Recently, Boris has relocated to Southern California to concentrate on creating fine instruments for concert hall performances. The borisviolins studio overlooks the Newport yacht marina, its interior architected and finished to resemble a Tuscan villa. In this artistically stimulating environment, Boris sculpts sound. He reasons, "Building a violin is formulating the abstract concept of tone, and then creating about it the physical means of which to produce it...It is a work of art on many levels."
Boris has been the subject of a public service radio commercial for his art, is highlighted in a former professor's national lecture series on 'How to Achieve a Goal', and travels extensively throughout the world.
