Performa Thermoplastic Polymers Violin Shoulder Rest in 4/4 Size

The Performa shoulder rest, developed by Cyrus Forough in collaboration with master luthiers, is engineered to provide an ergonomically optimized playing experience, especially for violinists accustomed to playing without a shoulder rest.

Key features include:

• Wide Surface Area: Distributes the weight of the instrument evenly across the shoulder and collarbone for comfort and stability.
• Adjustable Feet: The shoulder rest comes with three different feet to customize height:
  • Short Foot (11mm)
  • Long Foot (17mm)
  • Extra-Long Foot (25mm)

The shorter feet provide a minimal lift, ideal for those who prefer to play almost without a shoulder rest, while the longer foot offers additional height if needed. The feet have a soft rubber covering for a strong grip without dampening the instrument's sound.

• Comfort Pads: Two soft foam pads are included to enhance comfort:
  • Pre-installed 2mm pad
  • Optional 5mm pad

These pads are easily interchangeable and reusable, allowing for further customization based on the player's preference.

About Cyrus Forough, founder of Cyrus Creations

Noted for the “fiery intensity” and “poetic vision” of his playing, Cyrus Forough's reviews comprise a lexicon of superlatives in more than a dozen languages. Critic Donald Isler lauded his performance of Beethoven Sonata No. 7 in August 2016 as “a very fine performance of a great work,” saying he “played with great flair and stylistic understanding.” Of his July 2015 performance of Debussy’s Violin Sonata, Jim Lowe wrote, “With a warm sound and deft technique, Forough was an expert musician, utilizing skilled articulations and a broad palette of tonal colors, in delivering Debussy’s unique mix of Romanticism and Impressionism.”

Cyrus Forough is a laureate of the Tchaikovsky International Competition, first prizewinner of the Milwaukee Symphony Violin Competition, and finalist in the Munich International Violin Competition. He has performed on radio and television internationally and given command performances for international dignitaries. He and his wife Steinway Artist Carolyn McCracken won the United States Artistic Ambassador Program's National Duo Competition, representing the United States in the Far East and South America. They gave performances in many concert venues including the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Phillips Collection, and the Kennedy Center. Mr. Forough also holds the World Academy of Arts, Literature, and Media Award in recognition of his contributions to classical music and education.

An active performer of contemporary music throughout his career, Mr. Forough gave the Milwaukee Symphony’s premiere of the Shostakovich First Violin Concerto with Paul Polivnick conducting. In 2010, he performed Lutosławski's Chain 2 with the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic under Ronald Zollman. Mr. Forough recorded Alireza Mashayekhi’s fourth violin concerto in September 2016 with the Ukraine National Symphony, Vladimir Sirenko conducting. Mashayekhi's fourth and fifth violin concertos and his fourth Violin/Piano Sonata are dedicated to Cyrus Forough. He premiered the sonata along with other Mashayekhi compositions in a November 2017 recital at the ISSUE Project Room in Brooklyn, NY. Other composers who have dedicated works to him are Reza Vali and Alan Fletcher.

Mr. Forough's unique succession of studies, in three major international cultural centers with three of the twentieth century’s legendary violin masters, has made him a prominent representative of the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing. Beginning his studies with his mother, herself a violinist and graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, he became the youngest student ever to attend that same conservatory when he was admitted at age nine to the class of Arthur Grumiaux. He later studied with David Oistrakh and Josef Gingold.

Mr. Forough's dedication to teaching and his skill at communicating his art have earned him a reputation as a sought-after and effective violin pedagogue. At present he is a Professor of Violin at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and was a visiting professor at the Eastman School of Music in 2009, 2010, and 2015. He has performed and taught at festivals in over twenty countries, and his students are prizewinners of national and international competitions and members of professional orchestras worldwide. Cyrus Forough performs on the 1718 “Wilmotte” Antonius Stradivarius.