Instruments

I make each of my instruments as an individual tonal and visual “sculpture.” Even though I remain true to my personal artistic handwriting, each instrument is unique in its own unmistakable way.

For decades, at the workbench and in the acoustic research laboratory, I was inspired by the ancient Italian art of violin making by three great masters of the 18th century: Domenico Montagnana, Antonio Stradivari and Joseph Guarneri del Gesu. I was able to get to know a large number of these venerable masterpieces in my workshop and research their resonance profiles in my acoustics laboratory.

The solo authority of a Guarneri del Gesu, the warmth and depth of Domenico Montagnana, the delicacy, noblesse and luminosity of Antonio Stradivari - all these are gifts that I try to integrate into my own tonal handwriting and artistic language of form.

“I have had to do with the most famous violins from Stradivari to Montagnana, Guadagnini and Guarneri all my life and I know the violins that have been praised as inimitable! But what you, Mr. Schleske, have created in a perfect harmony of craft, science and artistic nature is new to me, never been there! ”[Mathias A. Freund, former first violin player, Munich Philharmonic]

Some of my violins, violas and cellos are in the hands of renowned soloists and concertmasters who play them as outstanding concert instruments. Despite this success, I do not copy myself. With each instrument, I seek to bring something new to life.