I started learning to play the violin when I was 11 years old. Having passed through the various ‘grades’ I went on to study for a ‘performers’ diploma with the London College of Music. I completed my studies and received the diploma in 1979. I decided however, that I wished to take my career in a slightly different direction and, being of a practical disposition, went to study the art of violin making and repair at the Welsh School of Musical Instrument Making. I gained a diploma with merit from there back in 1984. After that I joined Martin Restall’s firm, then based in Portsmouth, Hampshire in England and proceeded to put my studies to practical use in his workshop, repairing and maintaining a vast range of violin family instruments.
I branched out on my own in 1990 and continued to work both repairing, restoring and making new instruments from my home on the Hampshire/Sussex border. Due to other pressures in 1996 I decided to follow a different career path for a time, but a while ago returned to my first love, that is, making and restoring instruments of the violin family.
Over the years I have been privileged to study and work on many fine instruments by the great masters of the past with names you would recognise, including those of Amati, Stradivari and others of the Cremonese ‘school’. Being able to study these fine instruments at close quarters has of course influenced my work and inspired me to create instruments of similar visual and tonal beauty.
I would be delighted to discuss with you your requirements, whether in restoring your current instrument to its former glory, both physically and sonically, or by creating a brand new instrument for you, which will be pleasing both to the eye and ear and will become a treasured possession for yourself and perhaps, even a family heirloom.
Do please contact me, if you feel I can be of assistance.