Catherine JANSSENS
Catherine Janssens graduated from the Newark School of Violin Making in 2004. The following year she opened her own workshop in Brussels while continuing her training by attending various workshops and seminars covering restoration, setting up, draftsmanship, acoustics and varnish (with: Thomas Meeuwissen,West Dean, Jean-Jacques Fasnacht, Iris Carr, François Denis, Wim et Jan Van Weyenberg, François Perego).
In 2009 she was a principal figure in establishing the Atelier Flagey as a shared workspace and a hub where violin and bow makers could exchange ideas. She is also a founder member and president of EKHO, an association formed in 2014 in order to actively support and promote contemporary making.
As a trained violinist, Catherine Janssens is particularly interested in how sound is generated on modern or baroque instruments. She also devotes part of her research to exploring the acoustic principles governing the instruments of the violin family.
The « Plateforme pour l’Education et le Talent » (Fondation Roi Baudouin) granted her an award in 2015. She is a member of ALADFI and BVBMA , the French and Belgian associations of violin and bow making, and is active in encouraging a close collaboration amongst Belgian violin makers as well as furthering dialogue between makers and musicians. As a result, she is regularly invited to take part in talks on violin making in conferences, discussion panels, presentations and concerts (Sainte Cécile ALADFI 2012, Stavelot 2017, Poznan 2018…).
Since 2019 she has developed the Atelier Catherine Janssens, a home-based workshop where she collaborates directly with the bow makers Robert Pierce, Daoudi Hassoun, Eric Fournier and the violin maker Emilio Crabbé and also presents their work.
