2003 - Serge Boyer in company with Master Vladimir Spivakov
Serge Boyer in his store in company with Natalia Gutman
Serge Boyer with the Minister of Culture Mr Renaud Donnedieu de Vabre
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Born on November 15, 1955 in Paris, I am the youngest of a family who has been living thanks to music since several generations. Son of a violin maker and grandson of musicians of the comic Opera and the Opera, I have been living in this surrounding since my young age. The workshop being near the house, I spend there most of my free time without having though the idea of a career in violin making. In Septembre 1971 at the age of 15 years and ˝ I leave Paris for the capital of the French string instruments making, Mirecourt. My choice is still uncertain but two possible professions were predestined to me: violin maker by filiation or fisherman by passion for the sea which I hold from my mother's side. I begin my training in Mirecourt with Master Jean Eulry, a very big violin maker craftsman and since nearly 20 years co-director of the Hilaire company. It is a workshop working in the purest French tradition. Jean Eulry was the training Master of a great number of violin makers practicing today. He was recognized rightly as Great Master of training. I have 3 months to make a choice, the deadline is Saint Cecile's day, in November which is the date the violin makers are accustomed to meet in Mirecourt to celebrate the patron saint of music. Thus my father knows through his colleagues my predispositions to the bench. The immersion being total, I remain in Mirecourt until 1974. I "learn there how to use my tools" as the senior persons say .During these 3 years I make about fifty violins. I return to Paris in September 1974 to work with my father. The reality of the Parisian companies seems quite far from the atmosphere of Mirecourt and I learn little by little old instruments restoration. I share with my father the pleasure of manufacturing and copying instruments of the great Italian Masters. Our collaboration will last until December 1975. I then have to leave for a 1 year military service. It is then decided that I can perfect my training abroad. Back from the military service I leave to London to work in Charles Beare' workshop , famous for his very high level of instruments restoration. Charles Beare is himself a great expert in violins and shares with me his knowledge during 2 years. During my stay at Charles Beare's I work on high restoration and expertise which remain at the present time my principal activity. En In 1979 I am back in Paris and I return to my father's workshop in order to assist my father in restoration and expertise. The reputation of the company is founded on these two specialities and the requests for expertises become regular. Many instruments come past the workshop improving my eye day after day. In 1982 I write my first certificate!! En In 1984 my father decides to give me his place and I create the Boyer company. From this date, the rhythm accelerates: in 1987 I am named assessor by the French customs in the speciality "musical instruments". In 1988 I do my first auctions as an expert. En In 1991 jI am named expert at the Court of Appeal of Paris (we are 3 in France to be at the Court of Appeal of Paris). Great missions are entrusted to me: appraisal of the orchestra of Clermont Ferrand in 1996, missions for the Courts, missions for the insurance companies (MAIF, AGF, LLOYDS), expertises for the orchestras of Radio France in 2006. Several tens of auctions are to my credit: Neuilly, Paris, Versailles, Dijon, Cannes… My documentation, which is growing richer a little more each day enables me to publish in 1993 a book on the French School of the 19th century: "Treasures of the French violin making of the 19th century", a publication of 2000 copies prefaced by the 2 biggest violin makers in the world, Etienne Vatelot and Charles Beare. Since 1988 and until today, I have succeeded in taking my place in the sector of very high restoration including instruments of prestige such as Guarneri Del Jesus, Stradivari, Guadagnini, Lupot, Pressenda as well as in the field of expertise, the requests for drafting certificates of authenticity being daily. Thanks to my knowledge and my professional competence I can today count among my customers the largest soloists such as Vladimir Spivakov, Vadim Repim, Natalia Gutman, Maxim Vangerov, Sasha Rozhdestvenskiy, Alain Kouznetzoff, Sylvie Gazeau… Today the history is repeated: I accompany my son Florent in his fifth year of learning violin making and he is gradually taking the same course as me. |
© Serge Boyer - 2007