Guillaume Kessler is a professional luthier whose workshop is based in Strasbourg, France. He obtained his diploma in craftsmanship in 2012. This led to several internship experiences throughout Europe. In 2015, he opened his own string instrument workshop, which he has been running full-time ever since. Here is a brief personal resumé of his Lutherie d’Art project.
My journey to becoming a luthier
Education
It was in this international melting pot that I adopted one of the most essential concepts in art, which is to be open-minded.
Entering the world of lutherie was an idea that came to me after meeting several different violin makers in my region, and more definitively after a conversation with Benoît Charon when I was 18 years old. He convinced me to join the Newark International School of Violin Making in Newark-On-Trent, where he had done his training about a decade prior.
It was thus that I embarked on a four-year program at this renowned English school. And it was here that I developed my skills under the guidance of professors such as Pat Jowett, Paul & John Gosling, Peter Smith, Rob Cain, Paul Harrild, Cerise Jones, and Bharat Khandekar. It was thanks to these experts that I built and restored my first violins, violas, cellos, and other baroque instruments.
In July 2012, I finally left the UK with my degree in violin making. But little did I know that this was only the beginning of an incredibly exciting adventure.
Work experience
After school, I had the opportunity to complete my professional training with Stepan Soultanian. He remains a constant influence to me in my career. It is indeed thanks to him that I was able to learn the hard realities of the profession and to choose the path I am still on today.
Creating the workshop and the website
In 2015, I officially open my lutherie workshop in Roquebrune-sur-Argens, a small town in the south east of France. During this time, I focused by business around the construction, repair, rental and sale of string quartet instruments and their accessories. My business grew so well in those two years that the number of instruments in my workshop increased tenfold.
At that time, I also started to dedicate some of my time to my website and blog. I did this with the goal in mind of sharing my passion and knowledge with a wider audience composed of musicians, luthiers and amateurs interested in the profession. It was later on that I realized how important this work was, and decided to invest more time into it.
Moving to Strasbourg
In the fall of 2017, I arrived in Strasbourg with the idea of opening a luthier workshop. This was much easier said than done. But previous experiences made me optimistic, and I forged ahead and joined the association Créacité to help relaunch my business.
The influence of entrepreneurs of all ages and nationalities has helped me push my work in a direction that truly fits my vision of what lutherie should be.
A workshop with international influence
The year 2020 has just begun, making me realize how far I’ve come as I update this page. A few years ago, I would never have imagined that I’d be selling instruments to clients all around the globe, just as I could not have imagined to what extent this profession would allow me to so deeply discover the world and its inhabitants.