How did you first get involved with orchestral strings?
My dad was a trumpeter and I was in piano lessons since before I can remember. As for orchestra, I joined my school program in the 4th grade on viola. After a year, I started studying privately with Bernard Linden, who was an incredible teacher and character. I received a bass guitar for my birthday in the 8th grade, so I started playing in rock bands in addition to my classical study. I had great experiences playing in the Toledo Youth Orchestra through high school, at Beloit College and professionally with the Beloit-Janesville Symphony. My adult musical life had much more of an indie rock path, but I started working for St. Louis Music in 2008 and quickly joined the Knilling shop doing mostly ebony work. In 2014, I moved into our sales department and started as Knilling Brand manager in 2024.
What have your priorities been since taking on the Knilling brand manager role?
The first priority is always going to be high-quality student instruments that are set up and adjusted to help a young musician succeed. Learning an orchestral string instrument is hard enough without having to fight against the instrument, so we focus on shipping instruments that are properly set up and ready to play. The folks in our shop take a lot of pride in that, as do I. Beyond that, I’ve tried to make the line easier to understand and order, including simplifying pricing and adjustment concepts, standardizing part numbers and starting to expand and prune the line where appropriate.
How do you work with educators when developing products for Knilling?
In our category, meeting the needs and expectations of educators is of paramount importance. In some ways, orchestral instruments haven’t changed much in a few hundred years, but preferences in fittings, outfits and components change over time and we want to make sure we’re in line with what teachers want. The updates we made to the Bucharest outfits were made with this in mind. A product like the Perfection Planetary Peg is something that can solve a very specific problem for a school director, so I want to be in a consistent conversation with the educator community to make sure they know what we have to offer. Attending events like the ASTA convention and other ed shows are a great opportunity to listen, learn and think of new ways that the brand can serve teachers and students.
Are there any recent product projects you’re particularly excited about? Any future projects you’re looking forward to?
We’ve started to expand our step-up offerings with some models that I’m really pleased with. Our line had been missing a lot of important price points; the new Notturno, Alborada and mariachi-focused Bolero models are terrific instruments that have started to fill in some of those gaps. I think we still have some room to grow there, but I feel that we’ve made a lot of progress in the past year.
I am especially interested in ways that Knilling can be relevant in non-classical genres. The Bolero violin came from this line of thinking around mariachi, but I hope to have projects related to bluegrass, jazz, and various fiddling styles. There’s something special about the artistry and mythology around the violin, but I would love for Knilling to be a brand that is welcoming and approachable to all types of players.
