William Koucky recently reopened up his violin shop in Traverse City after closing the business for many years. He started an instrument-making career studying at the NW School of Instrument Design. It was a year-long apprenticeship learning the trade of guitar making. He then studied violin repair and restoration at Bien and Fushi Violins in Chicago. Wanting to learn more about making violins, William move to England to build his first violin in Alton, Hampshire, UK under the tutelage of Paul Bickle, a Newark Violin Making School graduate. He spent a year in England and returned to the US to study at the Violin Making School of America. While waiting to go to the Violin Making School of America, he studied at Campbell’s Chimneys Violin shop in Carlyle, Pennsylvania for six months. He then spent four years at the Violin Making School of America and graduated in 1988. Ettienne Vatlot was the guest examiner. During violin making school and after graduating, William studied at University of New Hampshire Violin Institute. He learned bow making in the traditional French techniques taught by William Salchow spending many summers at the Institute. William Salchow is the godfather of America bow making being trained in the French masters techniques. After graduating VMSA, William worked at Becker Violins in Chicago. William was there for two years doing violin restoration as well as bow repair and re-hairing for the shop. He left Chicago and ran a small shop in East Lansing, MI for two years in the early 90’s selling and restoring violins and cellos. Later moving to Traverse City and running the business for many years. After a long sojourn, William recently returned to the violin profession and opened the shop again in Traverse City. He is currently doing restorations, making new instruments and repairs. William recently worked in the repair shop at Interlochen for summer camp and now is open to do repairs and sales of violin family instruments. The shop now has many instruments available for trial ranging from $2000-$30,000 with a concentration of instruments in the 5-$10k range. Many bows are also available. Recently the shop brought in bows by HR Pfretzschner, and E. Sartory.
