If you have managed to get to this page, you must really wish to know something about me. Your wish will be answered here in stultifying detail, so read further at your own risk!

I've been in the violin business for over 35 years, so I guess it must agree with me. My major teacher for woodworking was Karl Roy, former Director of the Bavarian State School for Violin Making, with whom I studied for sixteen summers at the University of New Hampshire. I also studied violin acoustics for a number of years with Dr. Carleen M. Hutchins, the foremost violin acoustician of the 20th century. I feel that these two remarkable individuals represent the best teachers of my time, and I feel uncommonly fortunate to have studied with both of them. The results of this training, coupled with my own years of reseach in violin geometry and design, can be found in the instruments shown throughout my site.

I came late to the profession, having begun my checkered musical career as a bassist and later as a high school orchestra director. I became interested in violin work when I needed to repair school instruments to keep the students playing. I ran a part-time shop in the evenings, on weekends, and during school vacations, and for the first ten years or so I concentrated mostly on repairs and the requirements of running a business. I left public school work in 1980 and continued increasing my skills in repair and restoration. I didn't start making violins professionally until I was nearly 40, and then I was only able to do it part-time.

I left the business end of the violin profession when I was 56 and finally got the chance to work exclusively on building new instruments. Some people say that I retired, but I am working harder now, making more instruments, and having a lot more fun than ever before. The focus of my work these days is strictly on making new instruments, including the standard violin, viola, and cello, as well as all instruments of the new violin family, including the basses. I'm most noted for my cellos, which have been owned and played by the late Mstislav Rsotropovich, the greatest cello virtuoso of our age; John Martin, now unfortunately deceased, who was principal cellist of the National Symphony Orchestra for an amazing 50 years; and Charles Forbes, founder and current member of the New York Camerata, among others.

I am a member of the Violin Society of America, the Catgut Acoustical Society, and the New Violin Family Association for which I am the editor of the Violin Octet Newsletter. Because of my interest in refining the new violin family, I have given invited papers at the Acoustical Society of America and the original Catgut Acoustical Society. I've had a couple of papers published in the CAS Journal, and my most recent work on the geometry of violin design was published in American Lutherie.

Only time will tell if any of this is really important.

Last updated April 15, 2008.