Stop by our shop and electric violin showroom in Durham, North Carolina - just minutes from Raleigh Durham International Airport (RDU) and one mile off Interstate 40.
How to find our shop
Directions from Raleigh or Chapel Hill via I-40 From I-40, take exit 278 and turn RIGHT on Hwy 55 (it is a right whether you come from east or west on I-40 - go toward Apex, not Durham). Look at your odometer - we are almost exactly one mile from the Interstate. Go straight across Hwy 54. Pass the Golden Corral on right, a hotel, a BBQ place, then the new ABC store. As you go around a gentle left bend, you'll see a two story brick office building. There is a blue & white sign on the right for Kitt Creek Office Park. Turn RIGHT into parking lot. Of the five one story brick office buildings, we are the middle one in the back, parallel to the road - #5314, Suite 102, next to the hair salon.
Directions from Cary/Apex, Pittsboro and points south or east Take Hwy 64 to Apex, taking the exit for Hwy 55 - turn north (the highway sign will say 55 west). Go straight about 10 miles. We are 3 miles past the new I-540 connection. After you pass a water treatment plant on the left, be alert for the next light (CVS Pharmacy on right). Continue straight through the light, and at the second driveway, turn LEFT into Kitt Creek Office Park. Of the five one story brick office buildings, we are the middle one in the back, parallel to the road. - #5314, Suite 102, next to the hair salon.
Directions from north of Durham via I-85 Take I-85 to exit #177 (first exit after "Hwy 70" exit) - "Roxboro St., Hwy 55, Avondale Ave." Turn LEFT on Avondale/Hwy 55. Go under I-85 overpass. Go straight, up a hill cresting at a traffic light, then bear to the RIGHT soon after, to stay on Hwy 55, which then becomes Alston Ave. Go 2.5 miles, crossing railroad tracks about half way. Go under railroad overpass, and shortly cross highway overpass and make LEFT onto Durham Freeway South, Hwy 147. Take Hwy 147 South to Exit 5B, which is a fork to the RIGHT. Continue STRAIGHT UNDER the overpass, following the sign "Freeway ends 3/4 mile". DO NOT bear right again - that puts you on I-40 to Chapel Hill. At end of road, at light turn LEFT. At third light (road ends at water treatment plant), turn RIGHT on Hwy 55. Go through next light (CVS Pharmacy on right), and at the second driveway turn LEFT into Kitt Creek Office Park. Of the five one story brick office buildings, we are the middle one in the back, parallel to the road. - #5314, Suite 102, next to the hair salon.
Founder of the Feast
D. Blaise Kielar began his electric violin journey in the mid 1980s, when he sold Zeta violins through Hillmusic Fine Violins, in Chapel Hill, NC. He left that business to play and teach more in the mid 1990's. Over the years, he has taught many styles - classical, Irish, Old Time, jazz, gospel, country, Middle Eastern, free improv, etc. When he started his world music instrument store, Music Explorium, in 1999, he considered stocking electric violins to be his fun indulgence. He added acoustic violins due to demand from his former violin shop customers! Through the wonders of the Internet, people began calling him for advice about choosing an electric violin. His combination of violin shop skills and comfort with electronics and improvising appealed to players from as far away as Bali and Israel. Now, with Electric Violin Shop, he (and a staff of specialists) can provide a higher level of service to bowed string players who want to be heard in an amplified setting. Contact Blaise at 919-806-3311 to chat about your amplification desires. DBK Detailed BiographyDavid Blaise Kielar grew up playing violin in orchestras and clarinet in marching and concert bands at Sun Valley High School, Aston, Pennsylvania. He received a degree in music from West Chester University in 1974, where he explored everything from Baroque performance practice to electronic composition with Moog synthesizer. Being told he did not have the technique to play professionally (by a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra, back in the Eugene Ormandy days), he pursued a doctorate in music history at NYU. There he specialized in interdisciplinary Baroque arts and the 19th century New York composer George Frederick Bristow. Not finding a college teaching job, he changed career paths (with a bunch of help from the book What Color Is Your Parachute?) and learned the skills of bow rehairing and restoration at William Moennig & Son in Philadelphia
In late 1978, his Southern roots (born in Virginia) called him to a more laid back lifestyle, and he opened a violin shop in Chapel Hill, NC. His partner in Hillmusic Fine Violins, R. Nowell Creadick, taught Old Time, and Blaise began to realize a long-standing dream to fiddle. Soon there were weekly Celtic sessions at Hillmusic, and a group formed of the regulars. They called themselves " De Mhairt," which is Gaelic for "on Tuesday," the night of the gathering. Shortly after that, Blaise formed a swing trio, where he got to play clarinet also. He began to get more comfortable with improvising, and found that his classical playing was more relaxed. He taught classical violin as well as various fiddle styles.
For 15 years he helped beginners and professionals find the perfect instrument or bow. He even studied the classic French methods of bow making with William Salchow. His electric violin journey began around 1986, when his violin shop was an early dealer of Zeta violins. Blaise retired from Hillmusic in 1993, after rehairing over 3000 bows!
Participating in one of Paul Winter's Living Music Villages changed his life. Besides further freeing up his improvisational abilities, he got hooked on gathering players (and non-musicians) together to make spontaneous music. The beauty of the music created, and the closeness of the community of those participating, inspired him to develop a course called "Improvising Music For Everyone." This was when David Darling's workshops were called Music for People. Designed to help people get comfortable with the infinite possibilities of vocal and instrumental improvisation, Blaise's course has created a community of those liberated from the need to "play it right."
He has strolled for banquets, played weddings, had a world music band, as well as a jam band with four percussionists! He has improvised for belly-dancers, for meditation, and even with a group of Belgian techno DJ's at Burning Man 2006!
Blaise opened Music Explorium in 1999 in Carrboro, North Carolina, to retail exotic, creative and unusual strings, winds, electronics and hand percussion, and to host workshops designed to inspire the musical adventurer. Response from the community inspired Blaise and his wife Cathy to study drum circle facilitation with Arthur Hull. Their regular community rhythm circles offer folks of all ages and abilities a forum to jam together, creating their own magical rhythmic world every time! Blaise is not shy about bringing a violin into the drum circle, either - and sometimes there are 2 or 3 fiddlers jamming with the drummers!
Fiddle Fashionista
A native of Fayetteville, NC, Chris Guin took up the violin when he was nine years old, because it got him out of math class. Throughout his school years, he played in local and regional youth orchestras, as well as the local community symphony orchestra. At 14, he took up guitar, because he wanted to play in a rock band. If Electric Violin Shop had existed back then, this unfortunate necessity would never have occurred. With a decent amp and an effects processor, he could've played all the Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Van Halen, and Yngwie Malmsteen tunes he wasn't quite good enough to play on the guitar.
Chris worked construction, sold cars, telemarketed (so much for that whole immortal soul thing), worked for an inventory company, wrote resumes, and even co-authored a novel. (You'd probably think someone who wrote an entire novel would have no trouble with a little web bio -- you'd be wrong). After serving way too much time as a mall-zombie and general retail drone, much of it spent as an Evil Corporate Bookseller, he finally found his way to Electric Violin Shop. He has since become a brand evangelist for the store, and for the electric violin in general. As the Fiddle Fashionista for EVS, he sometimes helps customers find not only the instrument with the right tone, but the electric violin and bow to perfectly match, contrast, or compliment the player's wardrobe. His math skills have never fully recovered, but he is still playing the violin.
Sign up for our email list for updates.