Too close for concert: a violin goes flying

This video comes from a performance by the Orquestra do Norte in its home city of Amarante, in northern Portugal. First violinist Romulo Assis is the soloist in a June 11, 2016, performance of Tchaikovsky's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.

The performance is going well, but unfortunately, in the course of directing the orchestra, guest conductor Nuno Côrte-Real's hand contacts the headstock of Assis's violin, and the instrument flies from the soloist's hands. Amarante TV was recording the concert and captured the moment on video; in case you miss what happens, a slow-motion instant replay is provided.

The sound the violin makes when it hits the floor will send shivers down the spine of anyone who loves violin — or any stringed instrument, for that matter.

It's unclear whether the performance continued, but the audience showed its kind appreciation for what it had heard to that point.

Assis plays a Nicola Amati violin from the late 17th century. Classical host Jeff Esworthy, who first spotted this video, believes if only the violin's bridge was damaged, the instrument can be repaired fairly easily. "These instruments are 300 years old," he says, "and they get played hard every day."

Before joining the Orquestra do Norte in his native Portugal, violinist Romulo Assis studied with Professor Gerardo Ribeiro at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and later at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University with Cyrus Forough and Shmuel Ashkenasi.

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