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“I started playing violin very young. After high school, I wanted to be a professional musician. I studied at the Manhattan School of Music for two years until I realized it was too narrow for me. I decided to transfer and fill out my education.

Bryn Mawr was an absorbing experience and exactly what I was looking for. The professors were amazing, and I was eager to take as many courses as I could.

After Bryn Mawr, I traveled abroad for a year. In Boston, I heard about the North Bennet Street School Violin Making program. Something clicked; violin making came easily to me, even though I had no hand tool experience.

At the end of two years at that program, I felt like I was missing something. The instruments I was being trained to create did not resemble the old Italian violins that I revered: the instruments of Guarneri, Amati, and Stradivari. At that time, I met two top luthiers from Ann Arbor, Mich., Joseph Curtin and Gregg Alf, at an acoustic conference. When I saw and heard their instruments, I knew this was what I wanted to learn to create.

During the three years I apprenticed with them, I learned about creating different sounds through different woods. I studied how to control the sound produced particular arches for the type of wood, and fine-tuning the  thickness of the plates and the outline of the violin for a particular sound. I mastered how to create a dark rich sound or a bright brilliant sound through my carving.

Once I completed my apprenticeship, I moved back toVermont and set up my own shop. I spend two to three months on a violin, working with the same instrument day after day. It’s an incredibly immersive and sometimes exhausting experience. Once I begin a violin, I typically do not take days off—I’m caught up in the flow of creating. Every violin begins with deliberate contemplation about what woods to use: how old, what weight and density, what species, figure (how the wood grain reflects the light), and width of grain.

From that point on, it’s as if I stop thinking and just create. I pour a lot of myself into my violins, but the moment I string it up, it’s as if it takes on a separate identity of its own. The first time you play a violin, it has its own voice and begins its own life. It’s thrilling.

I sell my instruments through fine violin shops in cities such as Boston and Baltimore, where they sell for $18,000. It’s important for a musician to play many violins, old and new, to find the voice that resonates with them. A good violin shop provides that opportunity.

Bryn Mawr created in me such a strong foundation that I never questioned that I could do anything, whatever it was I wanted to do. My professors encouraged independent thinking, which gave me confidence to choose to become a luthier. Studying art history and philosophy let me understand the whole context in which violins were created, giving a three-dimensional quality to my understanding of their origin. It may sound incongruous, but I feel going to Bryn Mawr enabled me to become a successful violin maker.

As for what’s next? I’m just content as I am, striving to create great violins that will be appreciated for generations to come.”