Through interaction and consultation with colleagues and musicians it is my goal to create instruments that are interesting and beautiful, both visually and acoustically, within the well-established parameters of the great tradition of violin making. My ultimate goal is to serve music and the musicians.”

Kenneth Beckmann is a violin maker living in the Kansas City area where he has served the musical community since opening the Beckmann Violin Shop in 1989. For more than four decades he has been making award-winning stringed instruments for professional musicians.

His instruments are played in many professional orchestras in the United States and have been used in performances in many of the great concert halls across North America and Europe. His instruments have won numerous awards at the Violin Society of America international competitions and he is a member of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers.

Ken was born in Springfield, Illinois, raised in the Chicago area, and studied string bass performance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1979 he left school to begin an apprenticeship in violin making. He studied with and worked for Paul Schuback and Peter Shaw in Portland, Oregon and Houston, Texas.

He was privileged to work closely with V. Y. Nigogosian at the Oberlin summer restoration workshop in Oberlin, Ohio. The greatest influence on his work has been his association with Amos Hargrave for more than twenty years