"Do what you LOVE and do it honestly" - Tom Delonge

I have always loved tinkering with and trying to fix things.   I built model cars and ships by the dozens as a kid, and I loved to play instruments. I started with piano at age 7, and in junior high when I joined the orchestra, I fell in love with the music and the string bass.

I enrolled at Northern Arizona University in 1999, and played for several years, loving the music and the culture.  And then it happened. I wanted to clean my bass so I carefully laid it on its back and undid all the strings. Clunk! Soundpost down!

After I freaked out for few hours, my instructor informed me that I should take it to a luthier to have it repaired, which I did.  Jeffrey Robinson in Flagstaff very calmly and expertly stood my post back up, trimmed it to fit right, and I was never the same.  All I wanted to do was what he was doing, so he informed me where I should go to learn.

In 2003, I enrolled at the Violin Making School of America under the tutelage of Peter Prier, Charles Woolf, and Georg Meiwes.  There I learned instrument construction, woodworking basics and hand tool skills.    

I graduated in 2007 and moved to Atlanta, to work at the highly regarded Williams Gengakki Violins Inc., to continue my education and put to work the skills and principles that I learned in school.  I had the great fortune to be pushed, encouraged, and educated by Regie Williams, Ryan McLaughlin and Daniel Medina, and getting to participate in the advanced training at the Oberlin Summer Restoration Programs and bow rehair training from Jerry Pasewicz in Raleigh N.C.

With the closing of WGVI, I had the great opportunity to continue my work at Beau Vinci Violins in Alpharetta, where I honed my skills and headed the workshop for many years,  and getting to meet many of Atlanta's great musicians and families.