Gregg Alf was born to an artistic family in Los Angeles, California on January 30th, 1957 and as a child studied the violin at home and in a private school in England.
At age 19 years, he moved to Cremona, Italy where over eight years he graduated from the International Violinmaking School in Cremona and earned a growing reputation for his work. He returned to the USA in 1984 and opened a shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan with Joseph Curtin. From that collaboration grew Alf Studios which continues to this day.
Greggâs work has won highest honors in international competitions and exhibits including a full range of awards and Gold Medals and, in 1982, the Violin Society of Americaâs honorary designation 'Hors Concours'. His violin, viola, and cello models have evolved through in depth study of the rare Stradivari and Guarneri instruments that pass through his shop combined with an equally close dialogue with the concert artists that own them.
While honoring in his work the Italian traditions of the past, Gregg is an advocate of innovation and scientific inquiry for better understanding the acoustical foundations of his craft. His advocacy of new instruments has helped draw a new generation of string players to the viability of modern instruments and Alf violins appear regularly on-stage with many of todayâs leading symphony orchestras, in new recordings, and in concert with some of the most respected performers of our time.
Gregg holds membership in the Violin Society of America, the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers (associate), and the Entente International des Maitres Luthiers et Archetiers DâArt. He has lectured at educational institutions across the United States from the Juilliard School to USC, and worldwide in summer workshops presented by the American String Teachers Association. Gregg is a faculty member of the Oberlin Violinmaking Workshops and contributes frequently to the professional organizations of his trade, serving as a workmanship judge at the VSAâs Violinmaking Competition in 2002.
Founder and Artistic Director of the Amiata Summit, Gregg believes that promoting a new climate of openness between his violinmaking colleagues and encouraging original new models that look to the future while honoring the past are keys to true progress in the art of violinmaking.
When away from his bench, Gregg may be found scuba diving, cooking Italian food, practicing meditation and yoga, or just enjoying life with his wife Anna, his young son Leo, and his friends.
Peter Beare was born on 3rd November 1965. His mother is a cellist, and his father, Charles, a violin dealer and expert.
As a child, he played the cello, piano and oboe, but his main passion was for working with wood and, as well as woodturning and making furniture, he built model gliders and a 4-metre racing dinghy.
After completing his A-levels, Peter went to Salt Lake City to study at the Violin Making School of America under Peter Paul Prier.
He graduated in 1988 and returned to the family firm of J & A Beare Ltd as a restorer, working alongside many talented individuals and with the opportunity of closely studying the great 17th and 18th century Italian instruments by makers such as Stradivari, Guarneri and Bergonzi. From September 1989 to November 1990 he worked at the shop of Etienne Vatelot in Paris and he has also spent short periods of time with Premysl and Jan Spidlen in Prague, and Carl Becker in Chicago. Those visits were hugely educational and inspirational, and gave him the chance to absorb some of the many different approaches and viewpoints within the fields of violin making and restoration.
In the 2004 BVMA International Violin Making Competition his violin won four awards, including a first prize for sound.
Peter now divides his time between working at J & A Beare Ltd in London where he enjoys looking after musicians and their instruments, and at a workshop in rural Kent making both new instruments and copies of old master instruments.
He has been a member of the Entente International des Maitres Luthiers et Archetiers DâArt since 1997.
Peter lives in Kent with his wife, Sally, and their two children.
Luca Primon was born in Trento, Italy, in 1952. He studied music at the Conservatory in Trento before taking up violinmaking under Maestro Renato Scrollavezza at the Conservatory A. Boito in Parma. Between 1987 and 1992 he has studied in specialization courses with Maestro Jurgen von Stietencron in Riva del Garda, Italy.
Since 1980, Luca teaches violinmaking at the Civica Scuola di Liuteria in Milano. In 1991, together with the musicologist Marco Tiella, he restored the instruments of the LA PIETAâ Institute in Venice and wrote the catalogue for that collection. In 1996 he taught the restoration course with Maestro Vahakn Nigogosian in Oberlin, U.S.A and in 1997 taught violinmaking with Maestro Edward Campbell in Tucson U.S.A.
Luca has won two gold and two silver medals in both national and international competitions of violinmaking. He is a member of A.L.I. and E.I.L.A
He lives and works in Milan.
Born in Rochefort-sur-Loire, France in 1956, Patrick Robin is based in Angers, France where he shares the workshop with his
wife Andrea Frandsen, also a violinmaker of international status. They devote themselves to the making of violins, violas and cellos and to sound adjustments.
He is a graduate of the Newark School of Violin Making where he received the Royal Oakden Cup for outstanding achievements. While working with Roger Hargrave for the firm Geigenbau Machold in Bremen, Germany, he specialized in the fine art of restoring instruments of the great classical schools. The in-depth study of some of the finest Italian instruments has been a constant inspiration for his making of either copies in reproduction style of great Cremonese and Venetian instruments, or contemporary interpretations.
He has won many awards including two Gold Medals for violin and cello at the 1st International Violin Making Competition of Paris in 1991, the Gold Medal for a viola at the Mittenwald Competition in 1989, and the Gold Medal at the Manchester Strad Cello and Bow-Making Competition in 1994.
He has served on the juries of a number of international violin-making competitions such as Manchester in 1996, 1998, and 2001, Mittenwald in 1997, Paris in 1999, Wieniawski in Poznan in 2001 and Mexico in 2001. He is a member of EILA, and ALADFI.
The instruments of Patrick Robin are played by soloists and members of orchestras and ensembles such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, The Volks Oper in Vienna, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, lâOrchestre de Paris, lâOpéra de Paris, lâOrchestre Philarmonique de Radio France, lâEnsemble Orchestral de France, the Jean Sibelius quartet, the Aron quartett in Vienna, etc.
In November 2000 Catherine Tasca, French Minister of Culture, promoted Patrick "Maître dâart".
A
ndrew Ryan, the fourth child of seven born to a college professor and a graphic artist, grew up in a small New England town, Easton, Massachusetts, famous for its H. H. Richardson architecture and Ames Shovel, whose tools built the Transcontinental Railroad. He began studying the violin at age ten and was much influenced by the pedagogical writings of Yehudi Menuhin. His first teacher, an avid violin "hunter", inspired in him a fascination for the violin as a work of art.
He received a Bachelors Degree in Traditional Composition from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from the Violin Making School of America in Salt Lake City, Utah.
He has worked for Peter Paul Prier in Salt Lake City and Edward Withers Ltd. in London. He is a member of The American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers and has been a frequent participant in the Oberlin Violin Making Workshop. He will be an instructor at the Oberlin Set-up Seminar this summer.
Since 1994 he has worked as shop foreman for Reuning & Son Violins in Boston, where he oversees the restoration and set up of instruments and specializes in tonal adjustments. He currently works one day a week on new making; he has a fondness for the violins of Joseph Guarneri del Gesu.
He lives in Providence, Rhode Island with his wife, two children and their old house. When he is not working you can find him in his garden.
Raymond Schryer of Hilton Beach, Ontario, Canada has been passionate about violins for over 30 years. Along with his classical studies and participation in The Youth Orchestra Raymond became adept at fiddling. In his competition years he won 'Hor Concours' (first place in 3 consecutive years) for three major competitions. Raymond studied violin performance at the University of Western Ontario. Raymond enjoys arranging traditional fiddle tunes and still finds time to perform.
At the age of fourteen, Raymond studied violin making with his uncle Fernand Schryer in Quebec for four years. Raymond spent three years apprenticing at the violin shop of Geo. Heinl & Co. in Toronto. The dream of designing his own workshop became a reality when Schryer renovated the "Town Hall" in Hilton Beach. The decade from 1993 has been filled with innovations, challenges and rewards.
In violinmaking competitions, Raymond has consistently improved his standing. He is a leader in his field having been recognized with gold medal wins internationally. The pinnacle of his career to date is the Gold Medal win for Cello in October 2003 at the Triennale Internazionale in Cremona, Italy.
Raymond has been an active member of several professional organizations: Entente Internationale des Maitres Luthiers et Archetiers D'Arts in which he holds the distinction of being the Canadian Delegate, and he is a member of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers. Raymond's passion for making has led him to research many aspects of violinmaking.
Within his workshop and with neighboring violinmakers, Raymond and his colleagues share ideas, collaborate, invent, and apply technology to the art of lutherie. Raymond's research and development projects have not only benefited him and his career but have also been shared with other makers worldwide. Raymond is a recognized leader and innovator in his field.
Jan Spidlen was born in 1967 in Prague as the only son of Premysl O. Spidlen. From his early childhood he spent a lot of time in his fatherâs workshop becoming familiar with string instruments, music and wood and even showing significant artistic talent at that young age. His parents encouraged him to take an interest in music and he began to play the violin at the age of five.
He studied wood carving at the Art and Industrial School in Prague; however, he acquired the fundaments of violin-making in Mittenwald in Germany where he spent a year at the International Violin-Making School. After his return he continued training with his father from whom he also inherited a love of sport. In 1983-1984 he was a member of the national windsurfing team and during the 1990s he was one of the top snowboarding talents in the Czech Republic. Sport continues to play an important part in his life.
In 1989, he traveled to England to study for one year at the prestigious London-based firm J&A Beare where he worked as a restorer and encountered a large number of extremely rare instruments. Since 1988 he is a member of the Violin-Makers' Artists' Circle and in 2003 he was adopted as a member of Entente Internationale des Maitres Luthiers et Archetiers d'Art.
From the beginning of his career Jan has successfully attended various international violin-making competitions where he has continued to assume top positions: 1990 Paris (6th place - viola, 7th place - violin); 1993 Mittenwald (2nd prize - violin); 1993 Prague (1st prize - viola), 1994 Manchester (3rd prize - violoncello); 1997 Mittenwald (2nd prize - violin, 1st prize not awarded); 1997 Cremona (4th place - violin); 1999 Paris (honourable mentions - violin and viola); 2003 Cremona (1st and 2nd prize - violin).
Jan married in 1993 and has two children, a son Frantisek (*1996) and daughter Josefina (*1998). He is currently working alongside his father Premysl in Prague. Due to high demand, particularly from abroad, customers may have to wait several years for an instrument.
Samuel Zygmuntowicz, born 1956 in Philadelphia, was first trained as a sculptor before beginning his violinmaking studies at age fourteen. A graduate of the Salt Lake Violinmaking School, he also studied with Carl Becker in Chicago, plus five years in the restoration workshop of Jaques Francais and Rene Morel in New York, where he restored and studied many old Cremonese instruments.
His work has won highest honors in international competition, including double gold medals for violin tone and workmanship at Violin Society of Americaâs 1980 competition. A violin made by him for the late Isaac Stern was recently auctioned for the record hammer price of any twentieth century violin (TARISIO, 5/2003).
In 1985 he established his own shop in Brooklyn, NY, where he lives nearby with his wife and two small sons. He has specialized in creating instruments for solo performance and remains involved in their ongoing adjustment and maintenance, working closely with such artists as Cho-Liang Lin, Leila Josefowicz, Vadim Repin and Maxim Vengerov.
A member of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers, he is active as a teacher and judge, and is on the faculty of the Oberlin Violin making Workshops.
His work and designs are often featured in THE STRAD and STRINGS magazines, and will soon be the subject of short documentary for CBS SUNDAY MORNING, chronicling the making of a violin for Joshua Bell, as well as a hard cover book due for international publication by Harper Collins, which will follow the making of a set of instruments for the entire EMERSON STRING QUARTET.
He was also a prize winning fiddle player, and remains active as a musician, performing with a variety of folk music ensembles.
