Stephen Quinney

Stephen Quinney has been making, repairing and restoring  violins, violas and celli for over twenty years.

He trained at the Newark School of Violin Making in the UK  and began working for Philip Perret, one of New York’s most  well-respected luthiers, upon graduation. He spent over three  years in New York learning repair and restoration techniques  and worked with many world-renowned musicians and their  instruments.

Stephen worked with musicians and luthiers in San Francisco  and the Bay Area for three years before moving to Toronto in  2008. Stephen regularly attends the Oberlin Violin Making  Workshops run by the Violin Society of America where he  works alongside luthiers from around the world sharing  knowledge and information. Stephen participated in making  a copy of the Bett’s Stradivarius violin which now forms part of  the permanent collection at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. along with the original instrument.

One of Stephen’s violins won a certificate of merit at the 2014 VSA  Violin Making Competition in Indianapolis and in 2016, he was admitted into the membership of the American Federation of Violin  and Bow Makers.

In October 2018, Stephen was filmed for an episode of the television show “History in the Making”. This documentary series reveals  the process of making historically significant items using original,  time-honoured methods.