Willibrord Crijnen

As early as age 4, Willibrord Crijnen was drawn to the violin and began building small instruments out of materials such as cardboard and plywood. When he was ten, he built his first real violin, which he showed to Hendrick Zick, a violin maker in Eindhoven. Zick offered to teach him violin making. Starting at age 15, he worked in his workshop in the evenings and on weekends while continuing his schooling. In 1982, he moved to Amsterdam, where he began studying physics. In 1985, he established himself as a violin maker in that same city. His love for the South of France led him to move there. He opened his own workshop in Marseille in 1996 and moved to Toulon in 2009. Crijnen, who specializes in “antique varnishes,” primarily makes replicas of Baroque and modern instruments from the Italian and Dutch schools. In addition, he repairs and restores stringed instruments.