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<b>First Posted:</b> 2/6/2010<br><br>PATRICK WALTERS Associated Press Writer


PHILADELPHIA &amp;mdash; Over the past century, some of the world&amp;rsquo;s best violinists developed trust in William Moennig &amp;amp; Son, a storied shop they could go to for repairs, adjustments, new instruments and bows.
String players returned to Moennig through the Great Depression, two world wars and an evolution in classical music as tastes changed. From Isaac Stern to Itzhak Perlman to Philadelphia Orchestra greats, they consulted four generations of Moennigs.
Now, Moennig&amp;rsquo;s run has ended abruptly, stunning many in the violin community and symbolizing the ever-evolving nature of the specialized industry. The shop quietly closed its doors in mid-December, its owners citing the end of a generational line and an era in which big operations like theirs have become dinosaurs.
&amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s now the era of smaller shops,&amp;rdquo; said Mike Purcell, who is starting on his own after working at Moennig for 22 years. &amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s like a death in a way for people.&amp;rdquo;
Since the 1950s, big shops like Moennig have been closing across the country as more people develop the skills to repair, appraise and sell violins and other stringed instruments. That has led to many more smaller shops and made relics of the bigger ones.
&amp;ldquo;Moennig represented a certain style of shop that is perhaps becoming obsolete,&amp;rdquo; said Tom Wilder, president of the American Federation of Violin and Bowmakers. &amp;ldquo;That is the full-service shops, they are becoming rarer and rarer.&amp;rdquo;
Moennig &amp;amp; Son was founded in 1909 by William Moennig Sr., after he immigrated to the United States from Markneukirchen, Germany. The family business was passed down through the generations, to his son, William Moennig Jr., and then to his grandson, William Moennig III.
By the 1980s and 1990s books dedicated to making and repairing violins proliferated, making it even harder for big shops to survive as more people learned to do the work.
&amp;ldquo;The perception was that the big shop was too cumbersome,&amp;rdquo; said Dick Donovan, who worked at Moennig for 38 years, adding that Moennig &amp;amp; Son once employed about 20 people. &amp;ldquo;The little guys, the diaspora model, was going to be the model.&amp;rdquo;
As business got tougher in recent years, William Moennig IV and his sister, Pamela Moennig Taplinger, decided late last year they had no choice but to close.

Music over for Philadelphia violin shop