Tetsuo Matsuda 16 1/4” viola, Barrington, 1998 | Metzler Violins

About the Maker
Tetsuo Matsuda (1945-2022) was born in the village of Akita in northern Japan, eventually making his way to Tokyo in his twenties and working in construction to pay the bills. Matsuda began to apprentice in his landlord’s guitar shop, and eventually began working there exclusively. His landlord and employer invited him to Spain to learn more about European guitar-making practices, and Matsuda fixated on attending a luthier school and making it his life. In 1977, he moved to Italy to study at the historic Violin Making School in Cremona. His violins were awarded fifth place at the Wieniawski Competition in 1981 and second pace at the Cremona Competition the next year. In 1984, he received a Gold Medal rom the Violin Society of America Competition. At this point, Matsuda was living and working in Chicago at the William Harris Lee & Co., establishing an aesthetic of sound for their instruments as clear and responsive with his colleagues Will Whedbee and Gary Garavaglia. In 1993, Matsuda established his own atelier in the Chicago suburb of Barrington, where he crafted instruments for almost thirty years.