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Peer Review and Editorial Board

Quartet, Vida Simon, 2008

A call for papers was issued in 2002 to 7,000 institutions, repair and restoration shops, schools, and makers around the world. In response we received over 250 proposals for articles from craftspeople and scholars in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Korea, and Australia. A thorough peer review process, followed by targeted commissioning of articles to fill in gaps, has resulted in a collection of 150 articles by an international roster of 122 prominent contributors.

An editorial board of recognized expert craftspeople and conservators specializing in either instruments or bows was formed, and prospective authors were asked to prepare an abstract of the article they wished to submit for consideration. The abstracts could be submitted in any language and were translated as required. Abstracts were put through a blind peer review by panels consisting of four craftspeople and one conservator with the relevant specialization, all of whom were drawn from the editorial board. Each panel member, or referee, provided a written response to the submission, with a recommendation to accept, accept with reservations, or reject.

Without precluding innovative techniques, products, or ideas, the referees gave strong consideration to conservative methods that demonstrate a concern for the physical and musical integrity of the instrument or bow.

Several members of the editorial board, as well as editor Tom Wilder and many contributors, apprenticed with leading restorer Hans Weisshaar before and during the period when he was producing The Manual for Violin Restoration (1988), which has long been the standard reference work in the field.

The Editorial Board

For articles dealing with bows:

For articles dealing with instruments:

Technical Review of Manuscript

In August 2007 all of the technical articles were reviewed for accuracy by Paul Siefried, Joe Grubaugh, and Sigrun Seifert. Editing was finalized in accordance with their queries and comments. Throughout the editorial process, Robert L. Barclay reviewed conservation and materials articles for technical accuracy.

Notes on Editorial Board Members

For articles dealing with bows:

Tim Baker graduated with distinction from the Newark School of Violin Making in the UK before training further as a bow maker and restorer at London’s W.E. Hill & Sons. In 1984 he joined the renowned workshop J&A Beare Ltd, where his time was divided between bow making, restoration, and the study of old bows, specifically English bows from 1750 onwards. Mr. Baker lectures internationally and is a frequent juror for bow-making competitions around the world. Having been involved with Oberlin College’s instrument restoration workshops in Ohio, he worked to establish a similar professional development course at West Dean College in the UK. He has made bows for soloists, orchestral and chamber musicians, and a number of teachers in leading conservatories. Mr. Baker was a major contributor to The British Violin (2000), published by the British Violin Making Association (BVMA).

Joseph Grubaugh lived in the United States, Japan, Spain, and France as a child, before the family settled in the San Francisco Bay area. He earned a degree from the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music in Stockton, California, in 1972 and then served an apprenticeship in violin making with Albert C. Muller in Sacramento. In 1977 he joined the workshop of Hans Weisshaar in Los Angeles, where he developed his knowledge of restoration techniques, and where he also met violin maker and restorer Sigrun Seifert, with whom he has been working since 1979. They have been making instruments jointly since 1982 and have won numerous awards for workmanship and tone, including five gold and four silver medals for instrument making at the VSA Competition (1998/hors concours). They are frequent guest speakers at VSA and AFVBM conventions, and their co-authored articles have appeared in Strad, Strings, and JVSA. In 1993 and 1994, under the sponsorship of AFVBM, they organized a workshop at the Smithsonian Conservation Analytical Laboratory with the aim of fostering better communication between artisans and conservators. Joseph Grubaugh has been a faculty member at the Oberlin Violin Making Workshop and has served on instrument juries for the VSA Competition. He is a member of VSA, AFVBM, and EILA.

Klaus Grünke learned the craft of bow making from his father, Richard Grünke, between 1975 and 1978 in Bubenreuth, Germany. From 1980 to 1982 he worked for Hans Weisshaar in Los Angeles, focusing on restoration techniques and the study and copying of old master bows. After his return to Germany he worked in his father’s shop, making mainly bows with his own brand but also doing restorations and creating detailed reproductions of old bows. In 1996 he became co-owner of Richard Grünke & Söhne in Langensendelbach, Germany. Klaus Grünke has participated in international competitions, including the 1980 VSA Competition, where he was awarded gold medals for viola bow and cello bow, and the 1983 Louis Spohr competition, where he received the overall silver medal. He has since served on juries for international bow-making competitions in Paris, Manchester, and Mittenwald. He is a co-author, with C. Hans-Karl Schmidt and Wolfgang Zunterer, of the two-volume Deutsche Bogenmacher, 1783–2000 / German Bow Makers, 1783–2000 (Bubenreuth: Klaus Eigenverlag der Autoren, 2000). He is a member of EILA and Verband Deutscher Geigenbauer und Bogenmacher, and is a founding member of IPCI.

André Lavoye studied aeronautics at Cégep Édouard-Montpetit in Longueuil, Quebec, before beginning his career in violin making in Montreal. He studied violin making in Paris with Serge and Frédéric Boyer (1988–90) under a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, and received training in bow making under Jean-François Raffin in Paris (1990–92), while continuing to work as a luthier in the workshops of Jerôme Dariel and François Varcin, and later in Hong Kong with Sandra Wagstaff. He also spent a year at the Maison Bernard in Brussels. After his return to Canada in 1994 André Lavoye taught violin making at the École de lutherie artistique du Noroît (now the École nationale de lutherie) in Quebec City for a year and a half. Since 1995 he has been living and working in Montreal at Wilder & Davis Luthiers Inc. and in 1999 he also opened his own workshop, where he makes bows, violins, and violas.

Peter Oxley began his bow-making career at age 17 as an apprentice to Garner Wilson from W.E. Hill & Sons. After graduating from Leeds College of Music, where he studied jazz guitar and composition (1981–84), he began a dual career as musician and bow maker, specializing in the restoration of 19th-century French bows. He worked in Paris for more than ten years, and in 1986 relocated to Oxford, where he continues to make and restore bows. Peter Oxley has received several awards, including first prize, cello bow, at the 1999 Paris Competition and a gold medal at the 2001 Manchester Competition. He lectures internationally and is a frequent juror at bow-making competitions. He has released ten CDs and contributed articles to Strad and BVMA Newsletter. He also wrote the bow chapter for a forthcoming Russian encyclopedia of violin art. Peter Oxley is a member of BVMA.

Jean-François Raffin first studied violin making at the École nationale de lutherie de Mirecourt in 1969 and in 1971 obtained a vocational training certificate. Following a year of further training with Etienne Vatelot he joined Bernard Millant’s workshop where he served as first assistant for 17 years. Since 1989 he has been running his own shop in Paris where he makes, restores, and appraises bows. In 1993 he opened a new workshop with Jean Seyral in the Pyrenees. Jean-François Raffin was awarded the Prix de la Couronne Française (1977), the silver medal of Meilleur ouvrier de France in (1979), and the Expert près de la Cour d’Appel de Paris (1996). He has lectured on bows in North America and Europe and is co-author, with Bernard Millant, of L’Archet: les Tourte et les archetiers français de 1750–1950 (2000). He is a member of EILA.

Douglas Raguse has been a bow maker and restorer for more than three decades and has made nearly a thousand bows to date. He studied violin with George Zazofsky and Louis Krasner at the University of Miami’s School of Music before he was introduced to bow making by Lloyd Liu and the influential restorer and teacher William Salchow. Mr. Raguse maintained a bow-making studio in Chicago for 20 years and later established a studio on Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula where he continues to make and restore bows. Mr. Raguse has judged international bow-making competitions for the Violin Society of America (VSA) and the International Society of Bassists, and has won a total of twelve awards for excellence in bow making, including a Gold Medal from the VSA and a First Prize from the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers (AFVBM).

Paul Martin Siefried came to southern California at an early age. After training under Hans Weisshaar from 1975 to 1984 he established his own shop in Los Angeles. In 1993 he moved his business to Port Townsend, Washington, where he has been making and restoring bows ever since. His numerous awards include three gold medals at the 1978 VSA Competition (bow workmanship – viola, cello, bass) and three gold medals at the 1980 VSA Competition (violin bow, viola bow, bass bow); in 1982 he was declared hors concours by the VSA. He also received a gold medal and first prize at the 1992 Manchester Competition and third prize, cello bow, at the 1991 Paris Competition. Paul Martin Siefried has served as a jury member at the VSA Competition (1982, 1990, 1994, 2007), the Manchester Competition (2001, 2003, 2007), and the Paris Competition (1999). He is a founding member and past treasurer of AFVBM, a member of EILA and Les Luthiers du monde, and a member and past board member of VSA.

Michael Vann trained in New York under William Salchow (1979–80). He has received several awards, including four certificates of merit at VSA Competitions (eminent playability viola bow, workmanship pre-modern bow, 1982; workmanship cello bow, 1986; and workmanship bass bow, 1989), and has produced bows for the Royal House of Denmark. In addition to making bows, Michael Vann serves as Luthier in Residence at the Victoria Conservatory of Music in Victoria, British Columbia, where he teaches bow making and restoration. He lives and works on Gabriola Island, British Columbia, and is a member of VSA and AFVBM.

For articles dealing with instruments:

Charles Beare, violin dealer and restorer. After studying violin making in Mittenwald in the late 1950s, Charles Beare learned the fundamentals of restoration under Rembert Wurlitzer and Fernando Sacconi in New York. In 1961 he returned to London to work at J&A Beare. He became director of the firm a year later and has been chairman since 1998, when the company merged with Morris & Smith. Charles Beare is well known for his expertise in identifying fine old instruments. Honorary founding adviser of the Newark School of Violin Making and jury member of numerous competitions, he chaired the Scientific Committee for the exhibition in Cremona marking the 250th anniversary of Stradivari’s death. His publications include articles in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan, 2001) and, with Bruce Carlson, Antonio Stradivari: The Cremona Exhibition of 1987 (London: J&A Beare, 1993). Honorary citizen of Cremona, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, and recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of South Dakota, Charles Beare has been a member of EILA since 1967 and served as president from 1997 to 1999. He is currently collaborating on a comprehensive book about Venetian violin and lute makers from 1500 to 1800.

Robert Cauer graduated from the Staatliche Berufsfachschule für Geigenbau und Zupfinstrumentenbau, Mittenwald, in 1970 and then worked under the tutelage of Simone Fernando Sacconi and Dario D’Attili at Wurlitzer in New York (1971–74). From 1975 to 1979 he worked for William Moennig & Son in Philadelphia and in 1980 he opened his own workshop in Los Angeles, where he continues to perform restorations and care for several collections containing rare antique instruments. Robert Cauer has served on juries for numerous competitions throughout his career. He is a member of EILA, and a member and past president of AFVBM.

Florence Gétreau received a bachelor’s degree in French literature and art history from the Académie d’Aix-Marseille (1972), a master’s in art history from the Sorbonne (1976), and a doctorate in art history from the Sorbonne (1991). From 1972 to 1993 Florence Gétreau served as curator of the instrument museum at the Conservatoire de Paris, and from 1986 to 1992 she was also chef de projet for the Musée de la Musique. From 1994 to 2003 she was curator of the music department at the Musée national des arts et traditions populaires in Paris. She is now director of the Institut de recherche sur le patrimoine musical at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS); she founded the centre’s journal Musique, Images, Instruments (CNRS Editions) in 1995 and still serves as editor. She is an associate professor of organology and musical iconography at the Conservatoire de Paris and at the Université François Rabelais in Tours. Florence Gétreau is author, co-author, or editor of more than 200 articles and books on musical instruments, including Aux origines du Musée de la Musique (Paris: Klincksieck, 1996), Musique, esthétique et société en France au XIXe siècle (Wavre: Éditions Mardaga, 2007), and Le pianoforte en France, 1780–1820 (Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2009). She has curated several exhibitions, including Voir la musique: les sujets musicaux dans les œuvres d’art du XVIe au XXe siècle (2009) and Instrumentistes et luthiers parisiens (1988). Her honours and awards include Chevalier des arts et lettres (1987) and Officier des arts et lettres (1995), the Anthony Baines Memorial Prize from the Galpin Society for the Study of Musical Instruments (2001), and the Curt Sachs Award from the American Musical Instrument Society (2002).

Roger Graham Hargrave began his career in the 1970s making harpsichords and spinets, but then retrained at the Newark School of Violin Making from 1974 to 1977, when he joined the workshop of W.E. Hill & Sons, London. In 1981 he moved to Bremen, Germany, as manager of Machold Rare Violins. In 1986 he established his own business specializing in the detailed reproduction of classical Italian instruments. Roger Graham Hargrave has won several awards, including a gold medal at the 1978 Trienniale in Cremona. As a leading authority on the construction of classical Cremonese violins he regularly serves on juries for international competitions and lectures on the production and identification of instruments of the violin family. He has published extensively on the history and working methods of the classical instrument makers and is currently writing a book about the Cremonese school of violin makers. He is a member of EILA, BVMA, VSA, and the Verband Deutscher Geigenbauer und Bogenmacher.

Friedemann Hellwig trained as a violin maker at the Staatliche Berufsfachschule für Geigenbau und Zupfinstrumentenbau, Mittenwald, and with his father, Günther Hellwig, in Lübeck (1957–1960), and then worked for J&A Beare in London (to 1962). After completing the master luthier examination in 1963 he worked as a restorer and conservator of musical instruments at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg from 1963 to 1986 and from 1977 to 1983 served as chairman of the International Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections (a committee of the International Council of Museums). He was head of the conservation department of Rheinisches Museumsamt Brauweiler, near Cologne, from 1986 to 1987, and in 1988 was appointed professor (wooden objects conservation) at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences, where he remained until his retirement in 2003; during this time he worked on the conservation of an early Buddhist altarpiece at a monastery in the Nepalese Himalayas. Friedemann Hellwig has served as editor on the Cologne University scientific series Kölner Beiträge zur Restaurierung und Konservierung von Kunst- und Kulturgut and he occasionally appears as a musical instrument appraiser on the Bavarian television series Kunst und Krempel. He is currently editing a new edition of Günther Hellwig’s 1980 publication Joachim Tielke: Ein Hamburger Lauten- und Violenmacher der Barockzeit (Frankfurt: Verlag Das Musikinstrument, 1980). He is a member of the International Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections and Verband der Restauratoren (VDR), Germany, and serves on the editorial board of the VDR journal.

Hieronymus Köstler trained at the Staatliche Berufsfachschule für Geigenbau und Zupfinstrumentenbau, Mittenwald, from 1972 to 1975. After a two-year apprenticeship with Max Möller in Amsterdam he joined J&A Beare Ltd, London, where he remained until 1982. That year, he established his own workshop in Stuttgart. The Hieronymus Köstler Workshop specializes in restoration.

Peter Moes studied mechanical engineering and agricultural science at the Technische Universität München before entering Mittenwald in 1972, where he met and married violin maker Wendela Taylor. Upon graduation in 1975, Peter and Wendela Moes apprenticed for three years under Hans Weisshaar in Los Angeles, gaining experience in repair and restoration. In 1981, after living and working in London, they moved to New York and established Moes & Moes Ltd., where they concurrently made, restored, and repaired instruments. After ten years they relocated to Boston, and then set up shop in Stamford, Connecticut. Since 2004 they have been living and working in Peissenberg, Germany. Peter and Wendela Moes received a gold medal for their cello at the 1984 VSA Competition. Peter Moes is a member of AFVBM and EILA.

Sigrun Seifert studied violin making at the Staatliche Berufsfachschule für Geigenbau und Zupfinstrumentenbau, Mittenwald (1972–76). After graduating, she moved to Los Angeles for a three-year apprenticeship in violin restoration under Hans Weisshaar. While there she met violin maker and restorer Joseph Grubaugh. Together they established a workshop in San Francisco in 1979 and a year later moved to Petaluma, California. They have been making instruments jointly since 1982; their numerous awards for workmanship and tone include five gold and four silver medals for instrument making at the VSA Competition (1998/hors concours). They are frequent guest speakers at VSA and AFVBM conventions, and their co-authored articles have appeared in Strad, Strings, and JVSA. In 1993 and 1994, under the sponsorship of the AFVBM, they organized a workshop at the Smithsonian Conservation Analytical Laboratory with the aim of fostering better communication between artisans and conservators. Sigrun Seifert is a member of VSA, AFVBM, and EILA.

Marco Tiella was a piano student at the Civica Scuola Musicale Riccardo Zandonai di Rovereto (1935–48), studied composition privately (1948–55), and earned a Laurea of Architecture from the Istituto Universitario di Venezia (1955). From 1955 to 1978 he taught technology development and descriptive geometry at the Istituto Fontana di Rovereto. In 1978, having gained substantial knowledge of period instrument construction, he was entrusted to found the Civica Scuola di Liuteria in Milan, for which he acted as director until 1988. He also served as director for the Accademia di Musica Antica di Rovereto (1987–2008), presided over the Triennale in Cremona (1987–92), and has served as director at the Istituto per la Ricerca Organologia e del Restauro di Milano-Rovereto since 1980. Marco Tiella has written or edited numerous publications on musical instruments and their conservation and restoration, including Stradivari e la liuteria cremonese dall’U.R.S.S. (Cremona: Turris, 1988); Contributi allo studio del restauro degli strumenti musicali (Cremona: Turris, 1990) with Tiziano Zanisi; Catalogo degli strumenti dell’istituto della Pietà di Venezia (Rovereto: Moschini, 1991) with Luca Primon; and L’officina di Orfeo: tecnologia degli strumenti musicali (Venice: Il Cardo, 1995). He is a fellow of the Fellowship of Makers and Researchers of Historic Instruments (FoMRHI).

Technical Reviewers:

Robert L. Barclay received a Certificate in Science Laboratory Technology from the City and Guilds of London Institute (1968). In 1975 he graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, and in 1999 he earned an interdisciplinary PhD at the Open University in England. He joined the Canadian Conservation Institute as a conservator in 1975, specializing in the care and preservation of wooden objects, historical and technical artifacts, and musical instruments; he retired as senior conservator in 2007. He has taught and lectured extensively in Canada and abroad on the care and preservation of museum objects, and has given courses on the care of collections in several African countries. Since his retirement he has taught courses at the International Trumpet-making Workshops in the US and Germany. Robert L. Barclay is editor of The Care of Historic Musical Instruments (Ottawa: CCI; London: MGC, 1997) and published The Preservation and Use of Historic Musical Instruments (London: Earthscan/James & James, 2004). His numerous awards include the Nicolas Bessaraboff Prize of the American Musical Instrument Society for The Art of the Trumpetmaker (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal for services to conservation and the care of collections (2002), the Anthony Baines Memorial Prize of the Galpin Society (2003), and the Christopher Monk Award from the Historic Brass Society (2006) for contributions to organology.