MEET THE LUTHIERS
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.
KILE EDWARD HILL
Senior Luthier with expertise in Cello making and repair, Kile Edward Hill, was inspired and fascinated with string instruments as a child after watching a special program on PBS about Cremonese violin making. This led to his journey as a cellist, and ultimately a luthier. He began experimenting with violin making on his own time, while working as an organ builder at Richards, Fowkes, & Co..
In 2001 Kile moved to Salt Lake City, UT to attend The Violin Making School of America. During and after his studies at the VMSA, he worked as an assistant to Ryan Soltis. He also worked for Scoggins & Scoggins Violins providing set up and repair for the shop and customers, meanwhile continuing to make on his own time. In 2007, Kile moved to Atlanta, GA where he joined Voss Violins working with instrument set up, repairs, and also helped establish a workshop line of instruments focusing on violas and cellos. In 2014, Kile & his wife Leigha, moved to McMinnville, Oregon in the beautiful Willamette Valley. Kile has since established his own studio focusing on building violin family instruments, with a special focus on cellos.
Kile has joined the luthier staff at Vermont Violins. He brings years of experience with set up & adjusting violin family instruments. He is excited to be a part of a team that shares the passion of the intricacies of the string family instruments. He will be a leading player in the development of new products specifically related to cello as well as continuing development of sustainable products and resources. Kile looks forward to being a part of the music community of Burlington and the beautiful state of Vermont. On his own time he enjoys skiing of any kind, cycling, wrenching on cars, & of course spending quality time with his wife and daughter (Leigha & Vivi)!
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.
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.
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.
ADAM SCHECHTER
Originally from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Adam studied viola performance under Steve Wyrczynski at Indiana University and at McGill University under Andre Roy, as well as studying violin making under Roman Barnes at the North Bennet Street School. Mostly recently, Adam played as a member of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra viola section and taught violin and viola lessons to students of the Sioux Falls area. He is a new transplant to Vermont, having made the 23 hour road trip with his two guinea pigs, Meena and Daphne. When not cooing at said pigs, Adam enjoys playing Brahms, reading Dickens, and drinking a good cup of light roast coffee.