4 Brains – 8 Hands – One Masterpiece

4 Brains – 8 Hands – One Masterpiece is a group of four master violin makers who joined forces in a new mode of collaboration in 2014. The “quartet” consists of the violin makers Andreas Hampel (Hamburg), Felix Krafft (Berlin), Bärbel Bellinghausen (Vienna), and Andreas Hudelmayer (London). The four meet for regular sessions to work on instruments together. The resulting violin has four “signatures”.

Four brains and eight hands working in tandem together: thanks to such a configuration, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. After conceiving an instrument, the practical act of making it is divided into a series of steps that often become the subject of intense discussion. The instrument is handed over from one workshop to another. This also represents a unique opportunity for us to critically scrutinize our own methods and call some of our habitual worksteps into question!