The first time Mike Mitchell met Arthur Conner, the master fiddlemaker liked Mitchell's playing so much he gave him an instrument.

Well, loaned it, actually.

When Mitchell took a break from touring a few years ago, Conner asked for the five-string violin to be returned so he could pass it along to Buena Vista fiddler Chris Sexton.

"So Chris Sexton's five-string violin used to be Mike Mitchell's five-string violin," Mitchell said mournfully.

But the two men are still close friends, and Mitchell, who also runs the Floyd Music School, has recorded two CDs featuring Conner's instruments.

"Classics on Conner" features Mitchell and an ensemble of regional musicians playing favorite classical pieces on Conner-built stringed instruments that include violins, mandolin and cello. "Dead Center" is a mostly bluegrass album chock-full of -- what else? -- fiddle tunes. Mitchell is planning a regional tour in support of the CDs, called "Classical Grass," which will kick off at Jefferson Center on July 15.

One of the players who will join Mitchell during the concert will be Roanoke musician Jeff Midkiff, who still plays the Conner-made mandolin he got in 1974 when he was 11 years old.

"My father paid $500 for it when we were at the Galax fiddlers' convention," said Midkiff, who played it on recordings for the Lonesome River Band, the McPeak Brothers and others.

"I even played Mahler's 8th Symphony on it with the Milwaukee Symphony."

Another Conner-inspired project is a yet-to-be-completed documentary being edited by Floyd County artist Amy Adams. An eight-minute clip of the documentary, titled "Arthur Conner: Unlocking the Secrets of the Strad," will be shown March 27 at the Floyd Country Store during the music and film event "Music from the Crooked Road."

-- Ralph Berrier Jr.