Meet the team: Getting to know Keisuke Yokoo

We’ve been really pleased to welcome two new luthiers into the Bridgewood and Neitzert workshop recently and will be introducing them in the next couple of months. This month’s blog introduces Keisuke Yokoo who joined us a year ago following a significant career back in his home city of Tokyo. I met him at his bench to hear all about his journey.

Despite having no formal music education as a child, Keisuke was drawn to classical music and avidly followed great international classical musicians coming to Japan, particularly international orchestras and pianists. Memorable concerts included hearing Daniel Harding.

At the time, Keisuke was working for a construction company office working on detailed and precise construction drawings. Despite being skilled in this discipline Keisuke was inspired by the site builders who were creating things rather than working in an office with computers. He decided to combine his love of classical music and desire to use his hands and retrain as a luthier.

His first step was to study in a violin making school in Tokyo where he studied a basic woodworking and then violin making and repair for 2 years, after which he got a job opportunity in a Tokyo violin shop where he worked for 9 years. It was a very interesting time for Keisuke as he honed his craft, doing set-ups, repairs and bow re-hairs and maintenance.

He participated in the Misasa violin workshop, which brings together international luthiers in a small town in Japan. Here he met the workshop organiser Tetsuya Kimura, a Japanese luthier who had studied at Newark School of violin making and worked in the UK before setting up his workshop in Japan. Through this connection he began to interact with international luthiers.

Keisuke followed the research and techniques of Shem Mackey, the Musical Instruments Master Craftsman Tutor at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation which were published in the Strad magazine. Keisuke saw an opportunity to develop his skills even further and enrolled at West Dean where he studied under Shem, learning new skills such as marquetry, carving and decoration as well as making a baroque violin and a copy of a Barak Norman bass viol.

It was at this point that Keisuke first came into the Bridgewood and Neitzert workshop on an internship from West Dean. He had such a great time, feeling welcomed by the team and having the opportunity to work on interesting instruments. He asked if it might be possible to stay.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Gary and Tom were very pleased to support Keisuke’s visa and welcome his skills into the workshop, ‘I couldn’t believe it, even now it’s unbelievable’ says Keisuke when I ask him to reflect on his current role. He shares that working here has enabled him to extend his experience on an enormous range of instruments from baroque instruments, fine violins to other members of the stringed instrument family such as Lutes and an Oud.

We’re very pleased that he decided to lose the suit and tie all those years ago and to bring his precision, attention to detail and passion for great sound into to workshop. Welcome Keisuke!