A brief portrait
In my childhood days, my mother’s record player has been most captivating. Edita Gruberova and Mozart had really taken me. Learning the flute and trumpet later on not so much. My father’s woodworking shop had a bit more attraction to me then. My thing for music came back a little later with playing the violin. And, as an academic career after my studies in Geodesy was not really hitting the mark, my love for music and woodwork intertwined – to me becoming a maker of stringed instruments. My dream job.
Paths & Places
Apprenticeship training as a stringed and plucked instrument maker at the HTL Hallstatt (Austria).
Employments at the conservation department of the Musée de la Musique under Jean-Philippe Échard, Paris (France). Wilhelm Geigenbau, Suhr/Aarau (Switzerland). Henriette Lersch, Vienna. Gerlinde Reutterer, Vienna (Austria).
Study internships with Balthazar Soulier & Josselin Riehl, Atelier Cels, Paris. Matthias Bölli & Franz Münzberg, Vienna. Martin Rainer, Vienna. Thomas Gerbeth, Vienna.
Masterclasses in restoration of stringed instruments with Gudrun Kremeier, Almuth McWilliams, Damien Sainmont & Warren Bailey.
In music and arts, I take great joy in the works of the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical era. Stringed instruments I sense as one of the great creations of humanity. One, which I maintain and develop through my daily work as a living cultural heritage. And in doing so, I am delighted to contribute to their preservation for the generations to come.
“Viva fui, in sylvis sum dura occisa securi. Dum vixi, tacui: mortua dulce cano.”
Inscription on a portrait engraving of Gaspar Duiffoprugcar; Pierre Woeiriot, 1564.