Inspiration meets technique — the artist behind the art
CRAFTSMANSHIP
“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind”
- Johannes Brahms
MEET THE MAKERS
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JONG-WON LEE
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PAIGE WEBSTER
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MARIT DANIELSON
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MARCUS BRETTO
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YOUNG-JU KIM
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MELISSA COLLINS
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CEILE KRONICK
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TOBBY FILLER
JONG-WON LEE
Jongwon Lee joins us at Vermont Violins from Seoul, South Korea. A student of Tschu ho Lee and Brian Derber at the Chicago School of Violin Making, Jong has dedicated himself to the craft of lutherie for almost 30 years. Jongwon's impressive achievements include repair/restoration projects on Rostropovich's Maggini cello, Pablo Casal's D'Espine cello and Alban Berg's Strad. In addition to an impressive repair and restoration resume, Jongwon has built over 200 violins, 6 violas and 2 cellos.
PAIGE WEBSTER
Paige graduated with a BA in Music and Anthropology from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. Then she attended the Violin Making School of America in Salt Lake City. After graduating, Paige joined our lutherie staff working with a broad range of responsibilities from helping to build our V. Richelieu instruments, client repairs, and maintenance of our rental fleet.
MARIT DANIELSON
Marit Danielson studied violin from a very young age and then viola, which she pursued as a performance major with Emanuel Vardi at The Manhattan School of Music. She completed her undergraduate education at Bryn Mawr College, majoring in Art History and Philosophy. Violin making came as a natural progression, joining her playing education to her studies in aesthetics. Marit studied Violin Making first for two years at North Bennet Street School under Marilyn Wallin and Rodger Perrin, and then for three years in Ann Arbor with Joe Curtin and Gregg Alf when they had a combined shop.
At a time when makers have the option to use machines to speed their work along, Marit’s philosophy is to make her violins entirely with hand tools in the manner of the old masters. She even believes in taking the added time to cure her varnish in sunlight. Marit’s violins are enjoyed by serious players across the nation who respect this adherence to craftsmanship and tradition.
In addition to her own professional level violins Marit is one of a team of luthiers creating the Richelieu line of violins and violas for Vermont Violins. These are instruments entirely designed and crafted by the team in Vermont as an affordable quality instrument for the serious student. Marit finds there is much to be learned from creating a greater number of instruments as the team is carefully documenting wood sources, densities and plate thicknesses and evaluating their impact on tone quality. Marit has her shop in northern Vermont. When not making violins she enjoys taking walks and doing agility with her Norwich Terrier, Bromley, as well as gardening and training her young Connemara horse.
MARCUS BRETTO
Music has had a strong influence on Marcus' life since early childhood. He started playing a multitude of string instruments very early on, and finally decided to learn both violin and woodworking at the age of 12. After realizing that both of these skills could be merged into one, he began performing minor repairs for the stringed instruments at the middle school in his hometown: Hingham, Massachusetts. He continued doing repairs for the district until his graduation from high school. Marcus continued to follow his passion and enrolled in the violin making and repair program at the North Bennet Street School in Boston, Massachusetts. He completed the three year program, and joined the team at Vermont Violins shortly afterwards. Marcus is a member of the Violin Society of America. He goes annually to the Oberlin Acoustics Workshop. Marcus is also a self taught blacksmith, having begun at the age of 14 with the intent of making better tools for the luthierie trade.
YOUNG-JU KIM
Young-Ju is a bow specialist at Vermont Violins in Burlington. A graduate of the Kaywon School of Art in 1986 and Chugye University for the Arts in Seoul in 1990 for viola performance, Young-Ju brings a wealth of string knowledge with her. She studied at the Chicago School of Violin Making in 1994 and worked at Jong-Won Lee strings for sixteen years.
MELISSA COLLINS
Melissa has long been interested in the relationship that exists between fine craftsmanship and acoustics. This fascination led her to the world of lutherie and continues to influence her approach to instrument making and repair. Before moving to Salt Lake City to attend violin making school, she worked as a piano technician in Portland OR. After graduating from the Violin Making School of America, Melissa spent 8 years in Salt Lake City repairing and restoring instruments. She moved to Vermont in 2022 where she currently focuses on making new cellos and continues to enjoy repair and restoration projects on all stringed instruments.
As Production Manager, Ceile fills has found joyful fulfillment surrounded by all our wonderful toys: bandsaws, drill presses, CNC machines, laser scanners, 3D printers, planers and enough vacuum power to tidy up a small city! He manages all the machines and programming: adding CAD/CAM to his list of gadget wizardry. He is a passionate photographer (responsible for all the wonderful instrument photographs seen all over our webpages), a very talented violinist and a tinkerer responsible for the creation of new toys like lining clamps and carbide blades.
When not in the shop, Ceile can be found in his home, similarly filled with gadgets and toys, happily planning his next invention.
Toby started his life in Chicago, Illinois and can not remember any other kids in his grade school that were obsessed with Beethoven. Although Toby did not have much musical training in his youth, he was recognized for achievements in mathematics and engineering and attended the University of Illinois for Mechanical Engineering. After college he skied. He skied for many years in Alaska, Wyoming and Idaho before coming to Vermont expecting to find the “Rockies of the East”. While the skiing was indeed rocky, the New England charm was unique and the maple syrup highly addictive.
While in the Burlington area Toby has worked and consulted for many area Architecture firms. He began playing violin as an adult over a decade ago and continues to enjoy the challenge of the instrument, the joy of exploring music as an adult, and the incredible craftsmanship and science of string instruments. At Vermont Violins Toby will be assisting with CAM production and programming, and whatever else will keep his hands busy. When he’s not in the shop you might spot Toby running, sampling food truck cuisine, or tucked in a quiet place with his violin, trying to get the notes just right.