I was born in Germany into a musical family. I started music lessons at age four and took up the cello when I was ten.  I soon became interested in the mystery of instrument construction and made my first violin at age eighteen, at a summer workshop led by Julia de Lucca and Antonio Carriedo, then  recent graduates of the Cremonese violin making school.  After this hands-on experience, I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life making violins.                                                         
The following year, I was accepted at the Newark School of Violin Making in Newark-on-Trent, England, and graduated with Merit in 1987.  I spent the next three years setting up, repairing and restoring instruments at the Beverley Music Centre in Beverley, East Yorkshire.  The training I received from the workshop manager, Kevin Wilkes, formerly workshop manager at W.E. Hill and Sons, was challenging, but proved to be invaluable. From Mark Jackson I learned about the importance of good tools and tool making (as well as how to drive a car).                             

In 1990, I moved to Hong Kong to take up a position with Sandra Wagstaff Violins, where I worked alongside Tim Spencer (now of Hong Kong Strings) and William John (formerly of Ealing Strings).  Both of them became good friends and I collaborated, and went hiking, with Tim Spencer until I left Hong Kong. After two years in the Wagstaff workshop, I decided to go it alone – I spent the next seven years running my own business as a violin maker and restorer, as well as playing as a freelance cellist with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra, the Mount Davis Quartet, the Mandarin Trio, and pickup-bands too numerous to mention.  I performed all over Hong Kong and went on several tours of China and Taiwan.  This experience really put me in touch with the needs of the working musician.

In 1998, I was asked to assist in starting a violin business in Vancouver, B.C, and spent three months there setting up the workshop of Vintage Violins. 

When I returned to Hong Kong I felt, after years of working on my own, that there was more for me to learn.  I applied for a position with Claire Givens Violins, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where I worked for three and a half years, deepening my experience in fine violin restoration with help from the very knowledgeable Douglas Lay, while continuing to make instruments in my home workshop. I also continued to be actively involved in music-making, playing in a succession of string quartets as well as a minimalist avant-garde pop-band by the name of Smattering. 

 In 2003, I started work at House of Note in St Louis Park, Minnesota, where some of my instruments can typically be auditioned. Current shop mates include Lyle Knudson, maker of fine electric violins, Jeff Anderson, a promising freshman bow maker, and Paul Dahlin, whom the country of Sweden recently knighted for his achievements in Swedish folk fiddling. The position at House of Note has made it possible for me to spend more time in my workshop, making new instruments, as well as pursue some of my other passions.                        

I am still committed to spending my life making good instruments, and continue to explore the subject and its multiple intriguing facets.  I also still enjoy playing music, and perform with the Ayana Quartet and with West End Strings.