Jacob Saunders

Amati Instruments

Jacob Saunders (1959-present)

Born in Nottingham, England. The son of musician Janet Saunders and violin maker Wilfred G. Saunders.

At 16 he made his first violin under the supervision of his father.

Known to have made around 40 instruments.

Studied cello at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1977 until 1979.

In 1980 & 1981 he was an apprentice at the Cantonal Violin Making School in Brienz, Switzerland.

In 1981 he moved to Munich in Bavaria where he was employed, first by Hans Zunterer, then by Wolfgang Zunterer as a journeyman violin maker.

In 1983 he moved to Bremen, Germany, where he worked as a violin restorer in the Machold workshop under the direction of Roger Hargrave.

He moved to Austria in early 1986, where he first worked for several makers, notably Gerhard Neubauer and Hans Rombach. A year later, he opened his own workshop in 1987 in Krems an der Donau.

In 1988 he took his violin making masters exam in Innsbruck and in 1995 he was appointed expert to the Austrian Law Courts for Stringed Instruments and their Bows.

At the beginning of 2008, he moved his workshop to Sankt Poelten.  Three years later, in march 2012, he moved again to Klosterneuburg.