Itzel Ávila is a Mexican-Canadian violin maker based in Toronto, Canada.
She graduated with honours in violin performance from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and holds a Master’s degree in the same discipline from the University of Montreal.

As a teenager she made her first violin and further perfected her skills in Cremona, Italy, and San Francisco, United States, under the supervision of Francis Kuttner, and in Montreal, with Michèle Ashley. Further experience was gained at the workshops of Wilder & Davis in Montreal.

She is an active participant in “the” Oberlin Violin Makers Workshop, she has also exhibited her work in Italy, Belgium, Mexico, Netherlands, Germany, Canada and the United States.

In 2009 she established her own workshop in Toronto. Her instruments are characterized by an ergonomic and comfortable playability, reliable responsiveness, mature and powerful sound.

Itzel is the past (2022-2022) President of Le forum des Fabricants/ The Makers’ Forum – Canadian Association of Violin and Bow Makers.
Since November 2022, Ávila is a member of the Board of Directors of the Violin Society of America and the coordinator of the New Instrument Exhibition of the VSA.

From 2023 until 2025 she is a recipient of an Ontario Arts Council grant “Skills and Development”.
Photographer, and mother of two children.