Ryoichi Totsuka began his notable career in the music industry right after college as a salesman for Kawai Pianos in Japan. The experience inspired Ryoichi-san as he sought other opportun...

Ilse Fischer delivered orders for Kirschnek on her scooter to the luthiers of the music town of Schönbach/Luby. Her father, Franz Kirschnek, established the company which specializes in e...

Roland Wilfer is a fourth generation master luthier of the Emanuel Wilfer Double Bass Master Workshop. The workshop was founded 1905 and is specialized in crafting fine double basses for ...

Hans Herb was a student at the school for instrument manufacturing in Bubenreuth. After completing his studies, he worked at Hoyer and Grüner, as well as Höfner before opening his own wor...

Thomas Hoyer is the product manager of string instruments and worldwide distribution for Paesold and Höfner. After receiving his master degree in violin making in 1998, he started in the ...

Dr. Susanne Schnitzer shares her memories growing up in the Kirschnek family. Grandfather Franz Krischnek, founder of Kirschnek String Instruments, was a businessman with worldwide connec...

Sebastian Dirr has relatives that play string instruments professionally, so it was only natural that they welcomed it when Sebastian decided to become a bow maker. After studying musicol...

Norman Treitl’s grandfather was Otto Josef Klier, who established the Klira company to be the third largest music instrument production during Bubenreuth’s boom years. Norman Treitl can t...

Rudolf Neudörfer, bow maker, grew up in the Czech Republic after 1945 and went to the Violin Making School in Luby, learning the craft of violin making from his teacher Bohumil Pechar and...

Günter Lobe is a violin maker who is known for his faithful copies of Stradivari and other famous violins. He was an apprentice from 1977 to 1980 in the Ernst Heinrich Roth workshop in Bu...

Hagen Weise was born in Dresden. He shares his experience of his apprenticeship at Musima in a state run production in East Germany before 1989. Per day, four-hundred classical guitars we...

Harald Lorenz is the fourth generation of peg turners originating from a traditional farming community named Ursprung/ Počátky in the Czech Republic. The family looks back on 125 years of...

Roland Schuster is a bridge maker in the town of Bubenreuth, which has been the center of production for string instruments in Germany since 1945. He started his craft in the workshop of ...

Bastian Teller is a bridge maker in the 5th generation. Since he was a child, Bastian wanted to step into his father Manfred’s footsteps. After receiving his state certified diploma for m...

Hans-Peter Messner’s story begins in Trossingen. After he completed his studies in economics and law, he started working in sales and marketing at his uncle’s company, Hohner, which is kn...

Tilman Herberger was born in Leipzig to a family of music educators. At an early age, he was interested in electronics as well as music. While attending high school in socialist East Germ...

Titus Tost studied computer programming in the mid-1980s in East Germany. He enrolled in a newly established study program called the Studio for Electronic Sound Generation (SEKD) in Dres...

Elisabeth Link, wife of Horst Link, played an important role in the success of Sonor - a company synonymous with quality percussion instruments. For many years, a critical part of the pro...

Thomas Schreiber, grandson of Wenzel Schreiber, today runs his own repair shop and takes care of the woodwind instruments of several music schools in the region of Frankfurt. After an app...

Hans Dörner grew up in the music town of Schönbach/Luby surrounded by musical instrument makers - including his grandfather the violin maker and tonewood dealer Joseph Trasny and his uncl...

David Kramny proudly joined his father in business to help run PPV Media. His father, Thilo, formed the company in 1984, which has grown to include 27 magazines. The magazines range from ...

Dr. Michael Peters is the former Managing Director of Messe Frankfurt and an avid musician. Early on he formed several skiffle bands and later founded the Musikmesse Frankfurt Allstars. F...

Cornelia Kinzelmann is CEO of ESM which produces mouthpieces for clarinets and saxophones. Cornelia remembers her grandfather, Wenzel Schreiber, from the time when she was a child. Wenzel...

Sigrun Jantzen has been playing piano and cello since her childhood and holds a Ph.D. in History of Fine Arts. She has also worked for a book publisher which focuses on classical music bo...

Viola Schimmel proudly recalls the mantra of her great grandfather, the founder of Schimmel Pianos, “Quality will prevail.” These words provide motivation, understanding, and guidance for...

Gabriela König is the CEO of König & Meyer, a music manufacturing company for which her grandfather started in the 1930s. He was a tool maker who saw the need for well structured musi...

Joachim Winter is the president of the Jakob Winter Company, a family business since it was established in 1886. The company supplies accessories like cases and violin bows, as well as a ...

Klaus Götz’ family comes from Wernitzgrün, a small town not far from Markneukirchen. His grandfather, Conrad August Götz, founded C.A. Götz in 1884 which initially produced tuning pegs an...

Wilhelm Mönnig, his brother Friedrich, and cousin first removed Klaus are owners of Gebrüder Mönnig which produce high quality woodwind instruments in Markneukirchen. Their grandfathers, ...

Frank Schlegel was born in 1967 to a family of musical instrument makers in Markneukirchen. Like so many families in this region, he and his father, Klaus Schlegel, carry on the tradition...

Jochen Keilwerth’s grandfather founded the Julius Keilwerth Saxophones company in 1925 in Grasnitz. Once one of the largest saxophone producers in Europe, Keilwerth also produced  trumpet...

Friedrich Mönnig started to build oboes, clarinets, and bassoons in 1955 for his dad, Willi Mönnig’s, company. Later he became head of the production of flutes at Gebrüder Mönnig and work...