Christophe Landon
French-born Christophe Landon, who made his first violin when he was fifteen, is a prize-winning violin maker, expert restorer, and a world-travelling dealer. Landon is equally skilled in violin and bow making, two exacting and different skills. He won the Gold Medal for the sound of his assymetrical viola in 1983 and the first prize in Maurice Vieux competition in 1986.
In the rarified genre of makers of string instruments it is uncommon to excel in all of these areas. Landon also buys and sells very fine Italian instruments and rare old French bows. On a non-stop learning course that began at age fifteen, the luthier spent his summer vacations at the Mirecourt School in France and apprenticed, interned, and was tutored in some of the most revered workshops and ateliers in the world: Jean-Jacques Pages in Mirecourt, Max Möller in Amsterdam, Stephane Tomachot in Paris. Coming to New York in 1984, he worked with experts Jacques Français and Rene Morel, later opening his own shop in 1986 from his studio in New York City.
Now, across from Lincoln Center on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Christophe Landon Rare Violins names among it's clients members of the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Guarneri String Quartet, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. His space is a popular stop for students from nearby academies, concert violinists, and artists who favor both Landon's modern instruments, (Strings magazine highlighted Landon in a 1996 cover story “Remarkable Instruments — Visionary Makers”), and his indisputable connoisseurship of the world's finest and rare instruments and bows.