Real Viola for Young Players

Made in Vermont, USA

Most instruments this small are violins in disguise — bodies scaled up from a 1/4 or 1/2 violin and relabeled "viola" because a true viola this size is hard to build well. Ours is different: the 11" V. Richelieu™ is modeled after our full 16" viola and scaled down as a genuine viola, with fingerboards and bridges sized specifically for a viola's proportions, including the deeper bridge work a viola's often-troublesome C string needs.

The result is a young player's first taste of the real thing — the soaring highs of the A string and the haunting lows of the C, in an instrument sized for hands that measure roughly 18"–20" arm length. Most beginner violists never hear a true viola voice until they're years into playing one; ours are built so they hear it from the first lesson.

Every 11" viola is hand-graduated by our master luthiers and finished with hand-painted oil varnish, the same standard we hold for our full-size instruments — because a young violist's ear for what a viola should sound like is being trained right now.

RENT HERE - https://www.vrichelieu.com/rent-a-v-richelieu

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High-Quality Materials

Every V. Richelieu™ is made entirely in our Vermont workshop, hand-graduated by senior luthiers who thin each top and back to precise, individually judged measurements — not a factory template. Our spruce is hand-split and sourced from Italy and Switzerland; our maple comes from Bosnia. Where we can, we build with FSC®-certified tonewoods and offer GaiaTone and Sonowood as ebony-alternative fittings, so exceptional sound doesn't come at the expense of the forests it depends on. The oil-based varnish on every instrument is hand-painted by an accomplished oil portrait artist — a detail most makers at this price point skip entirely.