Florian Leonhard (born 1963 in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

) is a German-born, London-based

violin maker A luthier ( ; ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments. Etymology The word ' is originally French and comes from ''luth'', the French word for "lute". The term was originally used for makers of lutes, but it came to be u ...

, dealer, restorer and expert.Pithers, Ellie (4 April 2014)
"The world of violin maker Florian Leonhard"
''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

''. Florian has dedicated his life to studying, restoring and making violins. After studying in at Mittenwald School of Violin Making, he worked for W.E. Hill & Sons becoming head restorer.

Career

His firm, Florian Leonhard Fine Violins, has restored and supplied instruments by

Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the string instruments, such as violins, violas, cellos, and guitars, crafted by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), in Cremona, Italy, during the late 17th ...

and the

Guarnerius The Guarneri (, , ), often referred to in the Latinized form Guarnerius, is the family name of a group of distinguished luthiers from Cremona in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose standing is considered comparable to those of the Amati ...

family for renowned players including

Leonidas Kavakos Leonidas Kavakos (; born 30 October 1967) is a Greek violinist and conductor. He has won several international violin competition prizes, including the Sibelius, Paganini, Naumburg, and Indianapolis competitions. He is an Onassis Foundation sc ...

, Daniel Hope,

Julian Lloyd Webber Julian Lloyd Webber (born 14 April 1951) is a British solo cellist, conductor and broadcaster, a former principal of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the founder of the In Harmony music education programme. Early years and education Julia ...

and

Alina Ibragimova Alina Rinatovna Ibragimova (; born 28 September 1985) is a Russian-British violinist. Early life and education Ibragimova was born in Polevskoy, Russian SSR, to a Tatar family. Her family was musical, and she began playing the violin at ...

as well as to competition winners. Florian Leonhard has appeared on

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

, and in ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'', on subjects relating to investment in instruments and their preservation. ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' described him as "the world´s leading expert on fine violins" and the as ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'' a "world-leading authority on fine violins". He was a jury member at the

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

, Karol Lipinski, Henryk Wieniawski and

George Enescu George Enescu (; – 4 May 1955), known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanians, Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, teacher and statesman. He is regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history. Biography En ...

violin competitions.. He was on the jury of the 2012 Israeli Music Competition and Ernest Bloch Music Competition. He is a regular contributor to books and articles and has published the book, ''The Makers of Central Italy''. Florian is also president of the Pisogne Making Competition in Cremona.

Publications

* ''The Makers of Central Italy: Marche and Umbria'', Fantigrafica 2011; Olwell, Greg (March 2012)
"''The Makers of Central Italy'': A new book by a noted violin maker and dealer covers an under-appreciated region of Italy"
* ''Ein Bildband zum 200. Geburtstag von Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume''. Bocholt 1998; (with

Stefan-Peter Greiner Stefan-Peter Greiner (born 1966 in Stuttgart) is a German luthier residing in Zurich. He also builds violins. Career Greiner built his first violin at the age of fourteen. He completed his training in Bonn. In 2013 he moved his workshop from ...

)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leonhard, Florian 1963 births Living people Members of the Order of the British Empire Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom