Folk Fiddle 'Fish' by Paris Andrew

About Paris Andrew

Paris was born into a very artistic family and grew up attached to her violin which she played from a young age. Fascinated by the world of lutherie after a trip to a local luthier at 16 years old, she later went on to follow her passion; first as an apprenctice to Harpsichord maker and restorer Maestro Fergus Hoey, and later at the violin making school at Merton College London under the exceptional Master maker Keith Graves. After focusing on repair and restoration, Paris went on the win a fellowship from the Winston Churchill Trust for her work which allowed her to travel to Florence to work alongside a group of remarkable luthiers and study the Tuscan style and history of violin making with Maestro Francesco Algieri. Her great love of baroque music and history led her to retrain and specialise in Baroque builds with Maestro Fabio Chiari, and she now focuses almost exclusively on the Baroque. Paris makes instruments 'from models' and likes to use her intuition and personal taste guide her while making and varnishing. Paris has exhibited all over the world and is proud to have her instruments played by remarkable professionals and work in collaboration with award winning artists such as Leonardo Frigo, Federico Guglielmo and Thorgy Thor. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, The Churchill Trust and a recognised artisan of Homer Faber. From the summer of 2021 she now offers training and masterclasses to promising female indentifying luthiers and will shortly begin her new teaching position at Scuola di Liuteria Toscana Fernando Ferroni. She regularly contributes to publications such as The Strad and works to promote lutherie to a wider field using social media and workshops for schools. The violin “Il Veneziano” she created with hand desinged gondalo inspired soundholes was accepted into the Museo della Musica in Venice making her the only living luthier with an instrument in the collection.