My Story
My father’s lifelong passion for classical music influenced my childhood very much. For my fifth birthday I got a cello. Later we had a family quartet: my two elder sisters on the violins, my father on the viola and me on the cello. Most guests at home were musicians, and there were house concerts etc. We grew up very much surrounded by classical music.
From that background and a keen interest in fine woodwork I started to make my first cello at the age of 16. I made the first few instruments while still in school. A turning point was, when after baccalaureate and military service, in summer 1982 I met Etienne Vatelot at the Naantali Chamber Music Festival. He adviced me to enter the Newark Violin Making School followed by an assistant post at his atelier in Paris.
Starting September –83 at Newark, it ended up being a productive but short stay for me. Early –84 I moved to Antwerp working home and making new instruments. Finally 1986 I moved to France, and 2nd of January –87 started working at 11bis rue Portalis in Paris, in the illustrious Atelier Vatelot. 3 years included restorations and adjustments on numerous fantastic instruments culminating in two big, year long restorations of A. Stradivari violins from 1714 and 1691.
End of 1989 I started my own workshop in Gommecourt, an hour outside Paris, still doing some restoration work for the Vatelot shop, but mostly making new instruments. December 1993 we moved back to Helsinki, a family with two little daughters, and January I opened my shop close to Finlandia hall, Finnish National Opera and Sibelius-Academy. The name of my business Les Luthiers du Monde is a separate story.
First years in Helsinki my work consisted mostly of making new instruments. As it got more and more difficult to get bows from my bow maker friends, around year 2000 I started myself making bows for the violin family. First more as a joke, but it was a short laugh.
By 2010 the sound adjusting, repairs and restoration on both instruments and bows was taking more and more of my time. Less new instruments and bows got made. And finally 2019 I solved the problem by having a second workshop outside Finland for new making. There I can focus peacefully on one thing at the time, and I believe it can be seen and heard in the results.
My aim is to both make honest and pure new instruments and bows and restore and adjust the existing ones with respect for the early tradition of string instrument making. All is based on knowledge of the materials, and a combination of logic, intuitive and esthetic understanding of structures and shapes and their influence on the sound. This executed with highest level of craftsmanship and a keen, understanding ear for the needs of the musician and the music.
In my instruments I don’t do any artificial aging nor other tricks to hide behind the past masters. No copies, but honest new instruments – like did Stradivari and the great masters a few hundred years ago.
Prizes & Certificates
Instruments:
Paris 1991
Manchester 1992
Violin Society of America 1992, 1994 and 2010
Bows:
Manchester 2007
Violin Society of America
Member of competition Jury:
Manchester 2004
Mittenwald 2010
