Skip to content
bouwer

Jaap Bolink

*1946 , Enschede     

Jaap Bolink was born in Enschede on February 7, 1946. He is the son of violin maker Jan Hendrik Bolink and built his first violin at the age of 13 under his father’s supervision. From 1963 to 1967, he attended the renowned violin-making program in Mittenwald, southern Germany. Afterward, he worked as an independent violin maker in Amsterdam and as head of the workshop at Arnold Dolmetsch in England. In 1970, he passed his master’s examination in Mittenwald, where his work was awarded a gold medal. Since 1973, Bolink has lived and worked in Hilversum with his wife, Annelies Steinhauer, who is also a violin maker.
Workshop(s)
Amsterdam, 1967-1973
Hilversum, 1973-heden

“When Annelies and I started out in Amsterdam, there were hardly any people making a living from building new instruments. We were very idealistic. We wanted to build instruments that were just as good as those of the old masters—and affordable, too. We really had to fight for that. That fighting spirit, that “I’ll show them” attitude, comes through very strongly in my early instruments. They have tremendous power. I still believe that an instrument has to be very powerful, but it has to offer more than just power. You have to be able to play everything on it—from Baroque to modern music—and you also have to be able to play it softly.”

Sources

vioolbouwers.nu. Accessed 2019.

Auteur
Hidde Bekkers
Date
9 March 2019

Given on loan