“[Peter] Elias sees a bright future for modern instruments, although he still encounters musicians who don’t agree. “A player will come to me and have the audacity to say: ‘This sounds OK for a new instrument. but I prefer old ones.‘ I have got to the point where I’ve told them: ‘Listen. I prefer dead musicians too. I’d much rather have Paganini here than you today!’ As a musician you’re allowed to live in your time. Why shouldn’t an instrument maker? Is he only there to patch up your old instruments? Or is he allowed to create something in his time – is he allowed to have ideas in the same way that Stradivari did – to try things, different projects?“

(found at The Strand, Nov. 2000)