Thirty-eight years and two local violin shops later, Kot reached a career milestone: He won his 10th gold medal at the international violin-making competition held last month in Mittenwald, Germany. His latest award was for a viola bow, and he doesn't intend to rest.
"To me, what's important about violin- and bow-making is that our creativity and craftsmanship can always be better," said Kot, who owns Kot's Violins in Bryn Mawr.
These days, Kot makes bows and violins for members of the same orchestra that inspired him with Tchaikovsky's violin concerto.
He is also one of the few people in the world who make both bows and violins (and win awards for them), rather than specialize in one discipline.
"It's incredibly rare," said Christopher Germain, who owns a violin shop in Philadelphia and has judged bow- and violin-making competitions.
So is Kot's journey.
When he graduated from high school, he hoped to become a scientist. Instead, the government sent him to Yunnan Province in the country's far southwest to work in rice paddies. Still, he continued to make bows and violins, selling them domestically, and dreamed of studying in Cremona, Italy, home of many of the world's master luthiers.
"I thought if I can learn there, I'll learn from the best," said Kot, who lives with his two sons and wife in Wayne.
Finally, 16 years later, he was granted a student visa to Sydney, Australia, where he sold and repaired violins for that city's orchestra. Within a year, he had earned enough to make the pilgrimage to Cremona, where he apprenticed under two legends, Pierangelo Balzarini and Alessandro Voltini.
"Before," said Kot, "I had just used books - English, British, Chinese - but the best way to learn is from a person, watching their hands work."
