About

Greetings! I am a Dutch/Canadian lute maker residing in London, Ontario. Through this website I want to share some of my work of the last few years. I hope to whet the appetite of visitors looking at my galleries and, should you wish to get in touch, to give you the means to do so.

The instruments in the galleries are not an exhaustive list. I have made more lutes and baroque guitars, but these are the ones I have good pictures of. Currently on my bench? Warwick Frei bowls ….and a Sellas theorbo. The fall will bring a few more Renaissance 7c lutes. I also plan to start a fully decorated guitar based on the model in the gallery pictures. Stay tuned for updates.

So how came all this about?

It is 2010. Serendipity: at just the opportune time a friend extends an invitation to come and build a lute, for fun….

I ran with it. My friend Geoff Stubbs’ shop smelled as deliciously of fresh wood as the shop where I, aged sixteen, picked up my first classical guitar. From the start it felt like puzzle pieces of my life started to come together. Or maybe I made them do it. I do not know and in the end it does not matter. There was no turning back.

I have always been good at working with my hands, but I was green to woodworking, let alone any instrument making. The bug bit though, and I knew very early on in the project this is what I need to do. Thus my inherited, and very Dutch, practical side put me on a search for great instruction, what with me coming to this field later in life.

I found Ray Nurse, a renowned viol, lute and baroque guitar maker in Vancouver, BC. During a week of fantastic information sharing (“Bring a camera and a notebook and ask all the questions you want!”), he also introduced me to the eminent Grant Tomlinson and his former student, now a master builder in his own right, Travis Carey.

After participating in a summer course with Grant, and having built some more on my own, Travis decided to take me on as his student. What followed was an incredibly nurturing time of immersion, in which I took frequent trips out West. Most of these trips I was able to fund through various grants from the Ontario Arts Council. Being a student again was exhilarating and sometimes also excruciatingly humbling. What I know of building now, I know through my master, Travis Carey, who passed on the knowledge he got from Grant, who himself studied with Stephen Gottlieb in the UK.

In the meantime I continued to build at home, honing the skills learned during my residencies out West, slowly coming into my own. I brought to the bench my earlier experience as a musician and a teacher. To this day I continue to nurture the many connections I have made in the lute playing world through seminars, concerts, travel and social media to have my instruments presented and reviewed.

In the end, for me the best moment is when I get to hand a finished instrument to someone who is going to use it to make art of his or her own. Linking the lute making of today with the historical building and performing practices of the past and to the concerts of the future.

Being a part of such a delightful chain truly is a gift. So glad I ran with it.