“I don’t suppose you have a pair of 400-year-old pliers in your kitchen tool drawer, or a screwdriver made in the 1700s?” Miles Hoffman asked in one of his many radio broadcasts. “No, probably not. Tools don’t tend to last that long. The tools of string players, though, are an entirely different story. I’ve played many concerts with a violinist whose violin was made in about 1600, and whose bow probably dates from the late 1700s.”

It was the kind of observation that led music-lovers to Hoffman in droves.

“Sometimes in rehearsals,” he said, “I look around at my colleagues’ instruments and bows and think about how far these old tools have traveled, in whose hands and how much great music they’ve played. And I just can’t help smiling.”

Born in Queens, New York, in 1952, Hoffman brought classical music to life as a gifted violist, teacher, author, and National Public Radio commentator. He was founder and violist of the American Chamber Players and a frequent orchestral soloist.  A prolific writer, he served as dean and professor at Converse University’s Petrie School of Music. His national musical commentaries were heard throughout the country on NPR’s Performance Today and Morning Edition. His radio essays, A Minute with Miles, produced by South Carolina Public Radio, were broadcast throughout the Carolinas and other states to millions of devoted listeners.