About the New Instrument Collective (NICO)
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The New Instrument Collective (NICO) loans outstanding contemporary violins to leading performers, creating meaningful partnerships between today's finest makers and violinists. NICO platforms modern lutherie while supporting the loaning of these violins to the artists who bring them to life.

New Instrument Collective is a non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status.

The Living Art of Contemporary Violin Making

Lutherie is a living and breathing art. For centuries, violin makers have been creating beautiful instruments entirely by hand from slabs of wood, passing down tricks of the trade, innovating designs, and perfecting their signature details. Musical potential presents itself with each new instrument: every violin offers unique tones, colors, and expressive as well as technical capabilities — all of which are also individual to performers. Instrument pairing relies on feedback from the performer, and the right violin frees the player to express their whole musical voice.

The Right Violin for Each Performer

Every violinist needs an instrument tailored to their skills, style, and how and where they are going to be playing it. NICO provides active performers with years-long loans of contemporary violins at no cost to them. The violins are played and challenged daily as a result, accelerating their musical growth and embedding history into these instruments from the start of their long lives. Along the way, NICO gives players the opportunity to work with luthiers with the technical expertise to adjust and fine-tune those instruments to the playing styles and needs of the artist.
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Our Board Members

Barbara Glauber is Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the New England Conservatory, Vice President of the English Concert in America, and a Trustee of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. She received her B.A. from Radcliffe College, and a MBA and a Masters in Preservation from Boston University.

Three-time GRAMMY Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn melds expressive musicality and technical expertise with a diverse repertoire guided by artistic curiosity. Her barrier-breaking attitude towards classical music and commitment to sharing her experiences with a global community have made her a fan favorite. Hahn is a prolific recording artist and commissioner of new works, and her 23 feature recordings have received every critical prize in the international press. Hahn currently serves as a member of Juilliard School’s string faculty, following earlier artist residencies at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and the Dortmund Festival.

David Serkin Ludwig is a composer with an expansive career collaborating with many of today’s leading musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, and writers. Winner of the 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2024 award in music from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 2023 Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ludwig has had his music performed by musicians like Jonathan Biss, Jennifer Koh, Jaime Laredo, and Anthony McGill, commissions from the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, National Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic, and has held more than two dozen residencies with orchestras and arts institutions around the world. His choral work “The New Colossus” was selected to open the second inauguration of President Barack Obama. 

Born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Ludwig comes from several generations of eminent musicians, including his uncle Peter Serkin, grandfather Rudolf Serkin, and great-grandfather Adolf Busch. After teaching at The Curtis Institute for more than two decades, Ludwig was appointed Dean and Director of Music at The Juilliard School in 2021, where he also serves as the chair of the composition department and is the artistic director of The New Series. He lives in New York City with his wife, acclaimed violinist Bella Hristova, and their four beloved cats.

Lawrence Maisel is an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School and retired Global Chief Legal Officer of Chanel. He received his B.A. from Harvard College and J.D. from Stanford Law School. Now based in New York, he was a partner in law firms in Washington D.C. and Paris and worked for Chanel while living in Paris, London and New York. He has long been an active supporter of classical music organizations both in the US and in Europe.