Alina Kostina is  a Seattle-based volin maker.  Alina fell in love the violin through her early childhood music studies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan where i grew up.  Although the Soviet Union produced many great violinists, it provided its children with appalling violins. For many years of my early life Alina lived with the conviction that all children-sized violins were made in Moscow Furniture Factory No. 2, but the very glorious full sized ones came from factories in the Czech Republic. Armed with a greenish-yellow fiddle and a color-matched bow, complete with double bass grade hair, 6-year old Alina went to work, bowing hard, hoping one day this repurposed furniture would blossom into a real Strad and the black hair on her bow would turn unicorn white. Needless to say, much rosin was applied in pursuit of the coveted white hair.

Alina studied violin making under the  guidance of one of the preeminent modern makers David Gusset in Eugene, OR, Attending the celebrated Oberlin Violin Makers’ Workshop has offered invaluable opportunities to work and learn alongside many other great makers from around the world. Alina has undertaken close study of important historical instruments by traveling to Cremona, Italy and Mittenwald, Germany, visiting the Chi Mei Collection in Taiwan and the National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, and attending exhibits at VSA conventions. 

Alina holds several workmanship merit awards for for violin and a silver medal for viola tone from the VSA competitions. 

Alina enjoys making a wide variety of models of Strads and del Gesù violins and Cremonese or Milanese violas.