David Gusset

David Gusset was born and raised in San Francisco in 1951 and began studies of art and music at an early age. In 1974 he began his apprenticeship at the new violin making school in Salt Lake City and became one of the first graduates of the program. He worked at Frank Passa’s violin shop in San Francisco until 1979. He has received many awards, including three gold medals from VSA competitions, and in 1985 a gold medal plus the ‘Premio S. F. Sacconi’ award (for the instrument that best represented the classical Cremonese ideals) from the Triennale in Cremona. He has been hors concours at the VSA since 1982. David now lives and works in Eugene, Oregon where he makes, repairs, restores and appraises. He has contributed articles to The Strad and Strings magazines, American Lutherie and other publications. David is the recipient of grants from the Smithsonian Institution and from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco to prepare detailed illustrations of the 1687 decorated ‘Ole Bull’ Stradivari violin and the 1742 ‘Ferdinand David/Jascha Heifetz’ Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu violin.

David has been a member of the jury of violin making competitions in Cremona, Italy; Cleveland, USA; Beijing, China; and Mittenwald, Germany. He is a staff member at the VSA summer violin making workshop at Oberlin and EILA (Entente Internationale des Maitres Luthiers et Archetiers d’Art) since 1990. Member of the AFVBM from 1983 to 2018.