THE MAKERS' FORUM
PLATFORM DEDICATED TO THE
MAKING OF CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTS AND BOWS
André Lavoye
violin and bow maker
André Lavoye (Amos, Québec, Canada) studied aeronautics at Cégep Édouard-Montpetit in Longueuil, Quebec, before beginning his career in violin making in Montreal. He studied violin making in Paris with Serge and Frédéric Boyer (1988-90) under a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, and received training in bow making under Jean-François Raffin in Paris (1990-92), while continuing to work as a luthier in the workshops of Jérôme Dariel and François Varcin, and later in Hong Kong with Sandra Wagstaff. He also spent a year at the Maison Bernard in Brussels.
After his return to Canada in 1994 André Lavoye taught violin making at the École de lutherie artistique du Noroît (now the École nationale de lutherie) in Quebec City for a year and half. Since 1995 he has been living and working in Montreal at Wilder & Davis Luthiers Inc. and in 1999 he also opened his own workshop, where he makes bows, violins, and violas.