Musical Instruments

David L. Fulton

David LeRoy Fulton is a private collector of Cremonese instruments. Born in 1944, he grew up in Eugene, Oregon, and began playing the violin from an early age. He studied mathematics at the University of Chicago, and was concertmaster of the University of Chicago Orchestra while he was there. Fulton also performed professionally for three years with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra as a violinist. In 1970, after receiving his Ph.D. in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Connecticut, Fulton founded the Department of Computer Science at Bowling Green State University, serving as its professor and chairman for 10 years. In 2023 Bowling Green awarded him an honorary doctorate. While still at Bowling Green, Fulton co-founded Fox Software, which ultimately gained international recognition for its database management application, FoxPro. After the sale of Fox Software to Microsoft in 1992, Fulton served as Microsoft's Vice President for Database Products until he retired in 1994. Fulton has since assembled a collection of stringed instruments. At one point, the collection included 28 instruments, with eight by Antonio Stradivari and eight by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù. Starting in 2017, Fulton dispersed his collection, ultimately giving all but one instrument to the David and Amy Fulton Foundation, which has sold them. The Foundation supports many musical organizations, the arts, theater festivals, as well as medical and Jewish causes. In 2025, the Foundation made it possible for the United States Library of Congress to acquire a Stradivari viola, now known as the “1990 Stradivari, Fulton, ex. Baird, Tuscan-Medici”. Fulton has produced several documentary films about violins and music. The first was Homage (2008), which won the 2009 Juno award as "Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble". The film features violinist James Ehnes performing on fourteen instruments from Fulton's collection. The second, Violin Masters: Two Gentlemen of Cremona, (2010), narrated by Alfred Molina and featuring renowned violinists James Ehnes, Joshua Bell, Midori, Itzhak Perlman, and others, examines the history and modern use of Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesù violins.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸Fantasia on Christmas Carols
• ▸Granary
• ▸Jinghu (instrument)

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