He grew up in Chicago. She grew up in Nashville. He’s a lifelong carpenter who’d just as well live in the woods. She’s a former gymnast who fell under the spell of violin while training in ballet classes.

It would seem they don’t have that much in common. Except, that is, for the fact that they both want to make violins, and they’re both outsiders at doing it. An unlikely friendship has formed at the workbench where Ray DeMeo passes on an ancient craft, and in the process both he and his apprentice Amanda N. Ewing aim to make their work — and the music their work helps create — more accessible.