A Passion for Music and Engineering
My name originates from Holland, I was born in the USA, and I am a Swiss citizen. I spent most of my youth in Munich, Germany, where I began playing the flute at an early age. My interest in the construction of the instrument was sparked by an exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of Munich native Theobald Boehm, the inventor of the modern flute. But my curiosity encompassed all mechanical things. In my free time, I disassembled and fixed pretty much anything I could get my hands on. I particularly loved tinkering with car and motorcycle engines, improving my understanding of complex mechanical systems.
Based on my progress on the flute, I was accepted as a junior student at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich while still in middle school. Drawing on my growing craftsmanship skills, I frequently repaired my fellow students’ instruments. Upon graduating from high school, I faced a choice between my two passions: music and engineering. Instead of studying mechanical engineering, I chose the flute and studied with two renowned teachers — earning a bachelor’s degree at the Basel Conservatory with Peter-Lukas Graf and an MM in flute performance at the Yale School of Music with Thomas Nyfenger. After a season as principal flutist with the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra, I joined the Munich Symphony Orchestra as principal in 1994.
That same year, I began my first experiments in flute making in my sister’s goldsmith workshop, where I built prototypes of an innovative flute model. My father, a physics professor with a profound knowledge of musical acoustics, supported me in exploring the physics of the flute. In 2011, I built my first headjoints and experimented with various construction concepts. Stimulating encounters and discussions with flute makers Bickford Brannen, Leonard Lopatin, Gerhard Sachs, and Young Chan Song inspired me to continue on this path. After several years of development and receiving much positive feedback from colleagues, I decided to produce my headjoints commercially.
