Kenmore Violins Owner Dr. Jeff Loen has extensive training in violin making, restoration, and bow rehair and repair. After earning a Ph.D. in geoscience research, he focused his researcher’s drive on the problem of violin acoustics, eventually amassing one of the world’s largest databases of details of classic instruments. He is internationally known for editing the CAS Journal (2000-2004; an international peer-reviewed journal on violin acoustics), and for speaking at professional meetings including Oberlin Workshops, and conventions of the Violin Society of America, the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers, and the International Symposium on Musical Acoustics.

Dr. Loen spent many years studying details of fine classic violins, violas, and cellos in the world’s best museums and collections. Results of his research on Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu have been published by The Strad Magazine, the VSA Journal, and the CAS Journal, and he has written some popular articles for Fiddler magazine. His book on thickness graduation maps of classic instruments is owned by hundreds of violin makers, shops, violin making schools, and enthusiasts worldwide.

He has run a professional violin shop since 1995. In addition to sales, service, and rentals of Kenmore Violin’s stock of violin, viola, and cello, he maintains instruments in several school orchestras. He has played violin in orchestras, and banjo, guitar, mandolin, and fiddle in bluegrass bands, Celtic groups, and theatrical productions.