The University of Saskatchewan owns four rare instruments and your chance to hear them is coming up this weekend. The historic Amati string instruments were crafted by Amati family members between 1607 and 1690. Dr. Veronique Mathieu, Associate Professor of Violin, states that they survived wars and travel and in one case, being locked in an attic for decades in the Earl of Plymouth’s Castle in England.

She explains that the Amati instruments are renowned, just as the Stradivarius is well known, and in fact, it was a member of the Amati family who taught a member of the Stradivari family the craft. The Amati instruments don’t get played regularly to keep them from wearing out. The University purchased the instruments in the 1950s from Steve Kolbinson, a farmer from Kindersley. Mathieu says she has heard he began his collection by trading a bike for a violin, and then continued trading and purchasing, travelling the world to gather some of the world’s most sought-after instruments. Your chance to experience them is this Sunday afternoon at 3 at Convocation Hall.