Claudia Reynoso 16" viola, 2025, Ensenada | Metzler Violins

Claudia is a Mexican luthier born in Ensenada, Baja, California.  Her first contact with lutherie took place in the workshop of Daniel Guzmán in México City (1997–1999), where she built her first instrument, a Renaissance guitar. Later, she enrolled in the Bachelor’s program at the Escuela de Laudería of the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA) in Querétaro (2001–2006). Upon completing her studies, Claudia began her professional career working on setups, bow rehairing and repairing, responding to the high demand of these services. This work led her to organize a kind of itinerant lutherie project aimed at working with instruments from different orchestras and offering talks and workshops for students and music teachers to highlight the importance of maintaining bowed string instruments. This activity has allowed her to work in various Mexican states such as Oaxaca, Tlaxcala, Ensenada, Mexicali, and Tijuana, as well as abroad in Argentina, specifically in Trevelin, Patagonia.

To enrich her professional practice, she has also undertaken residencies in workshops outside Mexico, working on violin construction with Neil Ertz in Edinburgh, Scotland (2012), Andrew Carruthers in Santa Rosa, California, USA (2016), and Itzel Avila in Toronto, Canada (2019). She has attended courses taught by Jean Grunberger on modern bow making (2013), Pablo Alfaro on instrument setup (2017), and Sebastian Ribes on arching construction (2019).

One of Claudia’s passions has been performing setups and sound adjustments, a task enriched by working with musicians from diverse musical backgrounds, including classical, blues, and jazz, as well as traditional popular genres such as mariachi, son huasteco, and son jarocho.

Since April 2024, Claudia has been living in Ensenada, Baja California, where she currently runs her workshop, continuing her maintenance and repair work, as well as pursuing violin and viola construction projects.