Occupational profile
Musical instrument making unites, in a very special way, craftsmanship and art, technology and creation, science and intuition. In a musical instrument, historically developed experience crystallizes in the knowledge of cultural historical, technical and technological developments. The profound understanding of historical music and its practical performance aspects on the one hand, and the present knowledge of acoustic, physical and also construction and sound aspects on the other hand changed the perspective on the relevant instruments of past times. Due to a growing demand, the music instrument maker spends also more time with the reconstruction of historic models.
The growing demands on new musical instruments, as well as increasing international competition, force us to consider how the traditional way of training can be extended by a wide spectrum of expert knowledge and differentiated artistic- and technical finishing.
The State Vocational School for Musical Instrument Making in Mittenwald is a modern educational center that makes an important contribution to the conservation and further development of this interesting profession, through its mediation between traditional knowledge and innovative processes in the field of musical instrument making.
Fields of activities of an instrument maker
The instrument maker builds, repairs and restores musical instruments from his specialized field.
Instrument making
High quality musical instruments for professional musicians are generally made from scratch by musical instrument makers in all detail and in individual finishing. Each of these instruments distinguish themselves by the personal expression of their maker which gives each instrument an individual note both in style and sound.
Repair
In the event that a musical instrument becomes damaged due to wear and tear or due to an accident, sophisticated methods are used to make the repair as effective as possible and to restore the playability at an optimum level. During the repair, the sound aspects receive the highest attention.
Restoration
Where modern repair techniques are used to return the optimum playability and sound to a damaged instrument, in a restoration traditional craftsmanship techniques and materials from that time are used to return the instrument to its original condition.