Todd Goldenberg
Todd Goldenbberg’s biography maps a process of discovery and growth, creative exchange and challenges, and lots of serendipity. His own path to becoming a violin maker began with a degree in botany from the University of New Hampshire where he developed strong scientific and technical skills. Upon graduating, Todd began to pursue his passion for music and guitar, moving to Portland Oregon where he studied with master guitar maker Rob Ehlers. Working closely with Ehlers, Todd experienced instrument making as the critical interplay between acoustical and aesthetic demands. While crafting flat-top guitars under Ehler, Todd also learned the art of pearl inlay. A move to Chicago was intended to expand his training in guitar-making, but, once there, Todd quickly fell in love the craft of violin making, and he has been a violin maker ever since.
Expertise with hand tools is an artistic skill fundamental to fine violin makers. It takes years of training and working with hand tools to lay a foundation for the violin maker's relationship to the material and the creative process. With ths expertise, the violin maker gains control, precision, and the ability to transform raw materials into a responsive instrument. Looking for the best training, Todd moved to Chicago to work with the renowned Bein and Fushi violin, viola and cello shop. Expert violin makers and restorers of violins, violas and cellos, Bein and Fushi is one of Chicago's most respected shops. There Todd began as a repair trainee, gaining invaluable training and experience in the art of violin making and violin restoration.
Focused on violin making, restoration and repair, Todd next moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan where he began a nine-year tenure with Shar Products Company. At Shar Products he was employed in the violin shop with violin maker and restorer David Burgess. A master violin maker, Burgess worked closely with Todd and Todd's artistry flourished. Here, too, he honed his violin repair and restoration skills and used these skills to work with musicians at the University of Michigan and throughout the Detroit area. The nine-years as a violin maker at Shar brought Todd to the threshold of another move, this one to begin his career as an independent violin maker with his own shop.
In 1987 Todd settled in North Berwick, Maine and opened his own violin studio in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. At the same time he joined a co-operative group of violin makers in Waltham, Massachusetts where he worked alongside other New England artisans. The wonderful camaraderie Todd experienced was marked by intense exchanges of ideas about all facets of violin making and amply compnesated his frequent commutes from Maine. Within this violin makers' community, Todd expanded his repertory of instrument making techniques and developed new perspectives on his craft. And in a move that brought years of apprenticeship and training full circle, Todd began teaching violin making at the North Bennett Street School in Boston.
Finally, in 2003 Todd designed and built a violin shop across the road from his lakeside home. Here he works as a violin, viola and cello maker. In addition, he restores and repairs instruments for musicians at every level throughout the New England area. Here Todd's violin, viola and cello making begins with hand selected European woods, his own wood seasoning loft, his personal varnish recipe, and the freedom to work uninterruptedly on one instrument at a time. It is a quiet space about music, art and the thrill of discovery.
source: personal websiteservices
| makes | instruments vln, vla, vlc |
| restores | instruments vln, vla, vlc |
| address | 219 Morrill Mills Road - 03906 - North Berwick (ME) - United States |
|
|
|
back
Donate
