»Our work has a lot to do with fun and passion. But it is also a lifelong quest. You always have the feeling that the next instrument will be even better.«

Carsten Hoffmann

Veronika Dreysse's  focus in violin making is on two areas which complement each other.

The restoration on the one hand and shaping objects on the other side are her familiar since childhood: Her mother is a restorer and painter, the father sculptor.

Her education at the Landesschule Pforta focusing on music paved the way forward to the Violin Making School in Mittenwald with the training as journeyman and finally to Halle. During her 5 years at the workshop of Wolfram Ries, she developed her knowledge in the restoration and repairing of stringed instruments. Other priorities were the reconstruction of baroque instruments and again the making of new instruments. Her interest in the conscious creation of forms and its perception led to studies at the University of Art and Design Burg Giebichenstein in the Department toy design.

Workshops in bow making, the construction of stringed instruments (F. Denis), the restoration-conservation of stringed instruments (J.-J. Fasnacht) and regular drawing classes complement her skills.

Since the opening of the workshop in Bamberg together with Carsten Hoffmann she has devoted herself equally to the construction and the restoration of stringed instruments, the reconstruction of baroque instruments and bow rehairings and repairs.

Carsten Hoffmann was born in 1978 in Esslingen am Neckar.

After leaving school he trained at the Violin Making School in Mittenwald. There he finished with the Gesellenbrief (journeyman's certificate). Already here showed his enthusiasm to realize aesthetic and tonal ideas in new violins, violas and cellos. Succeeding his apprenticeship in various workshops which granted him an insight into the repair and construction of stringed instruments, he followed this path more consistently by studying at FH Zwickau in the Department of Making Musical Instruments. Here he got pioneering influences by H. Seifert, M. Stürzenhofecker and F. Denis.

In 2009 he was awarded the diploma with distinction (best Musical Instrument and best final mark) and the Meisterbrief (master craftsman certificate).

In the same year he opened the workshop in Bamberg together with Veronika Dreysse.

For Carsten Hoffmann, the collaboration with musicians especially by the Bamberger Symphoniker provides not only the opportunity to study old, very beautiful and very good sounding instruments as well as to maintain them and keep them tonally on the highest possible level. It also enables him with an ever deeper understanding of sound generation, sound perception and sound adjustment, which is also reflected in his own new making.