Annelies Steinhauer

Annelies Steinhauer (1945) was born in Amsterdam. In 1965, she went to Mittenwald to study violin making. There, she met violin maker Jaap Bolink. They left Mittenwald together in 1967, married, and worked successively in the Netherlands, England, and Germany before returning to Amsterdam in 1970. Since 1973, Annelies Steinhauer has lived and worked in Hilversum, where she still shares a workshop with Jaap Bolink. She focuses primarily on building new violins, violas, and cellos.

Steinhauer approaches violin making from a perspective entirely her own, without straying from the fundamentals. She herself says she “absolutely hates mindless imitation.” It is clearly a conscious choice on her part to let her imagination play a role in the creative process. She enjoys drawing inspiration, but, as she puts it, she doesn’t need the big names of the old masters for that. Her husband, Jaap Bolink, is the only one who truly inspires her.