As a young cello student, I used to pick up my father’s viola and play it upside down.

It made sense to me—the cello and the viola have the same string tunings, after all. Even though the viola is tuned an octave higher, it’s easy for a cellist to find the notes and play it in the vertical position.

It turns out I wasn’t the only one thinking along these lines. Around that time, in the late 1950s, the luthier and physicist Carleen Hutchins was building a consort of string instruments that included eight violin-shaped instruments, each with the strings one fifth lower than the one above it. One of these instruments has the strings of a viola, but it has a much larger body. It features an endpin and is played in a seated position. It is called the alto violin.

At the same time, my father, an enthusiastic amateur violist, had decided to learn to build violins. He contacted Hutchins to guide him as he learned to build conventional violins. In his spare time from his orthodontic practice and in his retirement, he built several good string instruments.

I continued to play the cello, and it is still my primary instrument. But the idea of learning to play a vertical viola stayed with me. I was also inspired by chamber music friends who had learned a second instrument. If I were looking for more inspiration, in 1993 Yo-Yo Ma performed on a large viola fitted with a long end pin. Playing a vertical viola is not just a circus act; I could be serious about this.

I began by renting an eighth-size cello, which uses viola strings. Learning the new hand positions took some getting used to, but it wasn’t as challenging as learning to read the alto clef. Still, I kept with it, and little by little, my alto clef reading improved. Now I can boast that I read all four orchestral clefs!

By chance, a local luthier who was doing some work on my cello had acquired an unusual pair of large violas with endpins made in the 1960s in Mittenwald, Germany. What an amazing find—now I could take my viola playing to the next level.

I found players who were willing to be patient as I learned the alto clef and got used to the hand positions on the large viola. My new viola measured nineteen and a half inches. It always made quite an impact at a chamber music session, especially with friends who were used to seeing me play a cello!

However, I was having some difficulty finding strings that were long enough for my nineteen-and-a-half-inch viola and didn’t break. It’s not as if there is a large community of musicians who play this instrument. Fortunately, I found another ACMP member who plays the alto violin, and he suggested strings and modifications.

Getting back to my father, after his death, we debated what to do with the instruments he had made. On the one hand, we wanted them to be played; on the other hand, we wanted one or two of them to stay in the family.

His favorite viola, a sixteen-inch instrument, has a lovely sound. It is also much easier for me to play a smaller instrument. Fortunately, I knew of someone who wanted to buy the alto violin. Since my father’s instrument has no end pin, I designed a waist strap that attaches to the button at the base of the viola, which works just fine. I bought a lovely bow to go with it. And here I am, an inner voice in my quartet!