Sought-after sounds at Payton Violins 

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Anyone who entered the double doors of the Anderson Arts Building on North Goodman Street a few years ago would have been greeted by the sounds of fingers clacking on keyboards, phones ringing, and a gravelly voiced receptionist answering them with, “CITY Newspaper. How can I help ya?”

Today, what for decades was CITY’s newsroom in the Neighborhood of the Arts is filled with music as the headquarters of Payton Violins, sellers and restorers of fine violins, violas, and cellos. Elegant string instruments, many worth thousands of dollars, now adorn walls painstakingly rehabbed from their days lined with filing cabinets and stacks of old newspapers.

Professional musicians from near and far turn to the shop at 250 N. Goodman St. to have their instruments repaired by co-owner Samuel Payton, who wields his tools with the finesse of a surgeon.

“Sam is the only one I trust with my instrument, I won’t let anyone else touch it,” said Petula Perdinkis, who lives outside Philadelphia and plays the viola in symphony orchestras in Harrisburg, Lancaster, and Delaware.

“I call him ‘the instrument whisperer,’ because he’s pretty much a magician when it comes to getting instruments to sound better,” Perdinkis said. “He has now basically gotten my viola back to the way that it was when I first bought it in the ’90s.”

A longtime violin player, Payton, 43, grew up in Brockport, but spent much of his adult life in Philadelphia, where he honed his craft as an apprentice to Chris Germaine, a renowned master violinmaker in that city.

He said the instruments he makes today are faithful copies of those he has worked with in the past. Payton has repaired and sold highly coveted antique instruments, including a violin thought to have been made around 1700 by Carlo Rugeri, of luthier royalty.

“Great instruments are anything but symmetrical,” Payton said. "There's always a little bit of a cant to one of the ribs, or a little bit of twist to the body. It might be half a degree, might be a millimeter-and-a-half off center. But all these very small differences contribute a lot to the character of the instrument.”
Payton opened Payton Violins on Scio Street in 2020 with his wife and business partner, Danielle Payton, 35. Last year, they acquired the assets of Pittsford’s now-closed Sullivan Violins and recently moved the shop to what had been CITY’s newsroom, production studios, and offices, where they employ a sales manager and two luthiers.

The Paytons fell in love with the space, which by chance had elements ideal for a music shop, such as high-density paper pulp ceiling tiles that improve the acoustics. There was also the abundance of natural light courtesy of large windows that CITY’s ink-stained reporters used to keep shuttered to tamp down the glare on their computer screens.

“Even on a gray, rainy, foggy day, there’s still so much natural light,” Payton said.

For anyone familiar with the space, the renovations to the bare-bones office are subtle but mighty.

Carpets were ripped out to reveal beautiful wood floors. Who knew? A wall that previously separated the front door from the front desk came down. Wainscoting panels were repurposed into a counter. Pine support beams were salvaged for instrument repairs. Pieces of one were recently used in a cello.
In addition to selling, repairing, and renting string instruments in their shop, the Paytons host occasional private and public gatherings of musicians.

Danielle Payton, who plays viola, piano, and upright acoustic bass, said her favorite part of the business is working with children and outfitting them with their instruments as they grow. Some, she said, come to the shop as young as 3 years old.

“They have their little, tiny instruments, and they grow year-by-year with their instruments sizing up,” she said. “It’s a wonderful thing, to be able to work with kids and see them growing.”

Rebecca Rafferty is an arts writer at CITY. She can be reached at [email protected].