MEET THE LUTHIERS

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.

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.

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.