Baptiste ARGOUARC'H
Baptiste Argouarc'h (°1983) discovered the craft by learning to play the violin. At the age of 9, he was carried away by the fumes of benzoin, lavender essence and the fine carpet of wood shavings that covered the floor of Vincent Schryves' workshop in Nantes. Six years later he began training to become a violin maker at the Ecole Nationale de Lutherie in Mirecourt (Vosges), where he first learned how to make violins with Michel Legeard and Dominique Nicosia, then the basics of restoration with Jean-Philippe Cognier. After five years of study, a technician's certificate, a “diplôme de métier d’art” and a number of training periods in workshops in France, he moved to Brussels to continue his training in the restoration of old instruments at the Maison Bernard with Jan Strick. Since 2003, he has been restoring the finest examples of early violin making, from Matthys Hoffman to Antonio Stradivari, with the same passion.
