Hi I’m Dan, I’ve been a Violin player for over forty years from concert halls (including the Sydney Opera House), theatre groups, worship groups, folk groups and just jammin’ with friends. I started my first folk group at the tender age of 14, dabbled with the QYO and played concert master for the southside strings orchestra in my school days. I’m a Trinity College graded player, engineering professor and sports coach in a past life. I also have a current working with children Blue Card.
I completed an apprenticeship under luthier David Brown from the Montsalvat artistic community and received a Lord Mayor’s Creative Fellowship in 2026 to further my study of European violin making and restoration. My sons play the violin too, my journey began working on their instruments and up-cycling violins in my workshop for the neighbourhood (its a shame to see a lovely violin sit in someone’s cupboard when all its needs is a little love ), when the local music shops closed.
In time its grown into a little suburban shop where you can find violins as good as new, better than new (a violins tone develops with age), antique violins, new violins and accessories.
I undertake string instrument repair and restoration and setup work for a number of music shops around Brisbane as well, and quite a few schools too.
I’m also interested in how violins work. I’ve applied my Physics brain (I have a PhD in Radio Physics) and years of working in elite sports (as a sports engineer) to understanding Violin mechanical and acoustic properties. It turns out sound (acoustic waves) and radio waves have a lot in common, further the mechanical analysis of something like a good cricket bat, helps understand a Violin and the bow, in terms of the respective signal chain. Having a good understand of this can help you perform better as a player too i think.