Lutherie Student Forum 2024
Lutherie student forum offers you:
10.00 - 11.00: RAB Trust tool sale, students only
RAB Trust will hold a sale of wood, tools and fittings, at heavily discounted prices. Not to be missed!
11.00 - 12.30: All about wood!
Andreas Pahler: Tree selection, cutting and storage with reference to future challenges
Andreas will talk through the process of selecting trees in the mountains, cutting billets as well as storage and drying wood for musical instruments with reference to future challenges.
Andreas Hudelmayer: Choosing wood for the workshop
Andreas will guide you through strategies to select the right wood for your instruments including some ways to measure the wood’s acoustic properties.
12.30 - 13.30: Lunch
13.30 - 15.00: Speed rating feedback session
All participants are welcomed to bring work for feedback and helpful criticism from our team of five experienced professional makers and restorers: William Castle, Andrea Frandsen, Andreas Hudelmayer, Malcolm Siddall, Nicole Terry and IJmkje van der Werf.
You will meet the professionals in groups according to your experience, so you will learn from the comments given to your peers as well as to you. Bring anything you like, from a simple rib assembly or scroll to a finished instrument or restoration project. It’s fine to bring more than one piece of work, but you will only show one piece to each professional.
Each group will have a maximum of 15 minutes with each expert, who will look at work individually or collectively according to what seems most appropriate.
15.00 - 16.00: RAB tool sale now open to non-students
The forum is open to current students of violin making and those who finished their training no earlier than 2022. It is a free event but you must book your place via Eventbrite.
Andreas Pahler
Trained in Mittenwald as a violin maker, Andreas worked for workshops in Lyon and Germany. After studying forestry he opened a saw mill at his parents’ farmhouse close to Munich. For 20 years he has sourced tonewood in the Austrian and Bolzano-South Tyrol mountain region as well as in Bosnia.
William Castle
William started at the Newark Violin Making School in 1979 and upon graduation in 1982 went to work in the restoration workshop of Geigenbau Machold in Bremen. After three years there, seeing many classical Italian instruments, he set up on his own in York, mixing repair work and making. Since 1996 he has lived in Shropshire, devoting his time to making new instruments.
Andreas Hudelmayer
Andreas graduated from Newark in 1994.
After working for workshops in Potsdam and London he started his own workshop in London in 2002, where he specializes in set up and adjustment work as well as making new instruments.
Nicole Terry
Nicky graduated from Newark in 2014 and has been teaching amateur violin making classes in Cambridge ever since, also working on repairs and set ups and occasionally even having the time to work on her own making.
“Teaching at Cambridge can involve a lot of redrawing, redefining, refinishing and ‘perfecting’ for students who do not necessarily possess the tool skills to achieve the goal and perhaps are not even quite yet sure what the goal is - I can offer an eye for detail and awareness of errors commonly made early in one’s development, along with a lot of encouragement!”
Andrea Frandsen
Born in Denmark, Andrea studied violin making at NSVM, followed by a period in northern Germany. After establishing in France 1988, she specialised in new making, mainly of violins and violas. In addition to the great pleasure and honour of having her instruments in the hands of excellent musicians, she had the privilege of receiving two gold medals for violin and viola in Oakland, CA, 1995, and in Paris, 1991. During the last decade, Andrea has been invited as a jury member in major international violinmaking competitions in Europe and U.S.A. This is a great opportunity on each occasion to follow the development of violin making and also to meet luthiers from all over the world.
Ijmkje van der Werf
IJmkje is a violin maker and restorer working in Cambridgeshire. In her workshop at home she makes new instruments and carries out restorations. She works part time in the workshop of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and regularly at Philip Brown Violins in Newbury. IJmkje graduated from the Newark School of Violin Making in 2008.
Malcolm Siddall
Malcolm trained at Newark from 1976-79. Since graduating he had a long career combining making restoration and teaching of both, originally as a tutor at the Welsh School of Violin Making and later as visiting tutor at Cambridge violin making summer courses for 38 years. For over 30 years he has been a freelance restorer working for London shops and at times for The Royal Academy.
“Over this long career l have learned much from my peers and feel privileged to have learned much from some the top restorers in the trade. As l am in my 76th year l feel l would like to share some of that accumulated experience/knowledge with those coming up in the trade.”