Eamon McLoughlin grew up in England where his father had a band, which later developed into a family Country style band that included Eamon and his two sisters. He attended college in Aus...
Lothar Meisel was the ninth generation of violinmakers in his family, going back to 1660 in Klingenthal, Germany. He recalled with a smile the days as a young boy hiding under his grandfa...
Antonio Monzino VII followed in his father’s footsteps. Antonio Monzino VI was a well respected violin maker and expert who began the exportation of Italian musical instruments to several...
Hans Jürgen Nebel is a fourth generation violin maker from Germany who decided that his skills and talents were best served as a repairman. He has rebuilt and restored violins ever since...
Frantisek Nemecek was born and raised in Czechoslovakia where he studied advertising and helped the more than 70 instrument makers in the area to sell their products. Frantisek began by e...
Rudolf Neudörfer, bow maker, grew up in the Czech Republic after 1945 and went to the Violin Making School in Luby, learning the craft of violin making from his teacher Bohumil Pechar and...
Itte Nygren first learned of the Ronnie Gardiner Method of music therapy in the early 2000s and at once was eager to apply the treatment to her patients. She has since witnessed the heali...
Fred Oster was encouraged by his cousin to play the guitar as a youngster, which quickly expanded to include playing the mandolin and the five string banjo. By the time Fred was playing b...
Walter Paulus is president of Werner Paulus GmbH, which is located not far from the town of Bubenreuth and produces bow parts of the finest quality. Starting in 1920, Walter’s father-in-l...
Walter Pawlikowski was born in Maruszyna, Poland, not long after World War II. His older brother John became a well-known violin repairman and luthier, which inspired Walter to follow in ...
Bogdan Pawlikowski grew up in a family of violin luthiers. His uncle John and father Walter both achieved notoriety for their handed crafted instruments as well as their well-respected re...
Bonka Peykov has a great deal of respect for the process of making high quality musical instruments. When she joined her husband’s family business, she worked long and hard to learn each...
Ivan Peykov grew up in the music business as his father formed a company to make traditional Bulgarian instruments. After attending college with a focus on engineering, Ivan returned to ...
Brittany Platz began her musical journey in Minnesota as a percussionist. One day while in the third grade, her class was treated to a performance by the school’s 6th grade band. The drum...
Peter Paul Prier began playing the violin when he was 8 years old, growing up in Germany. He studied violin making while he was a teenager and in 1959 set out to America to open his own v...
Joseph Rashid studied the art of violin-making like few others. His goal was not to mass produce the instrument or even to sell them, but rather to hand-make the instruments based on sci...
Michael Remenyi has been the proud third generation of the company his grandfather founded in Hungary in 1890 to build and repair violins and other string instruments. After World War II...
Mike Remenyi represents the fourth generation of family members running the Remenyi House of Music located in Toronto, Canada. It was his great-grandfather Mihály who opened a small viol...
Kate Riessland was born in England in the years following World War II and soon found she had an interest in learning all she could about the German culture. While in Germany, in 1969, s...
Ernst Roth is a guitar luthier who over the last 40 years of his career has dedicated himself to training younger craftsman in the art of violin and guitar making. He was born in the musi...
Jeff Saltzman has been involved with the violin since being introduced to the Suzuki Method when he was a child. His grandfather and father both worked as wholesalers in musical instrumen...
Carola Schlegel is director of the International Instrumental Competition in Markneukrichen. This juried contest is held every year with the alteration of string and wind instruments. As ...
Wolfgang Schnabl is a luthier in Bubenreuth, Germany and has been particularly successful in creating cellos. After learning the craft at the state vocational school for instrument making...
Dr. Susanne Schnitzer shares her memories growing up in the Kirschnek family. Grandfather Franz Krischnek, founder of Kirschnek String Instruments, was a businessman with worldwide connec...
Roland Schuster is a bridge maker in the town of Bubenreuth, which has been the center of production for string instruments in Germany since 1945. He started his craft in the workshop of ...
Ekhard Seidl’s steady hand and concentration, so evident when watching him, can be traced back to his grandfather and the tradition of violin making in the town of Markneukirchen Germany....
Jack Shallat was a professional violin player who landed several gigs with traveling bands in the 1930s and 40s. During that time he met Buddy Rogers and both men opened separate music s...
Tim Shirk likes to say he is a Tim at Tim’s Music and not the Tim. While not the founder, Tim is the general manager of the Sacramento area store, which focuses on band and orchestra sale...
Paula Simmons wanted to create a shop where good quality instruments could be accessible to all those who came in the store. As a teacher, Paula was very interested in providing lessons ...
Al Simpkins spent his career selling musical products. One of his former dealers was convinced Al could sell a block of ice to residents of the North Pole. His knowledge of the products a...
John W. Smith was playing orchestral guitar music when he thought it might be fun to begin playing the cello. He walked into his local string shop, Keller Strings in Kansas and …. met his...
Kevin Smith opened the Violin Shop in San Diego after extensive training as a violin luthier and appraiser. His knowledge of the craftsmanship of violin making was on display during his N...
