I grew up in a musical family in the Netherlands, where my parents ran a successful violin dealing and repair business. In 1980 I followed in the family footsteps and enrolled in the Newark School of Violin Making, graduating three years later.

In 1983 I established my own workshop in Tunbridge Wells and have since developed the varied clientele that has given me the opportunity to restore everything from student instruments to Stradivari and the finest examples of seventeenth and eighteenth Century Italian work. My customers include local as well as overseas musicians, members of all the major London orchestras, international dealers, private collectors and music colleges.

Although I specialise in large scale restorations, including baroque and classical conversions, I also undertake smaller repairs, maintenance work and tonal adjustments. I sometimes have antique instruments for sale along with new violins made by my husband Andrew Fairfax (employed as a maker and restorer at J & A Beare for over twenty five years).