Dealer and Restorer of
Instruments and Bows of the Violin Family

Canadian Bowmaker Michael Vann was trained in New York City in the shop of the world renowned master Bowmaker William Salchow. Since embarking on his career in 1975 he has won six international and more than a dozen Canadian awards for his bows which have been acquired by such notables as Pierre Fournier, Ruggiero Ricci, Steven Dann, Steven Staryk, Eugene Fodor, Sidney Harth, Gwen Hoebig, Gabriel Magyar, (Hungarian String Quartet), Nicolai Znaider, Lena Neudauer, The New Brunswick String Quartet (Canada), The Franciscan String Quartet (U.S.A.) The Colorado Strings Quartet, (U.S.A.), The Manfred String Quartet. (France), The St. Lawrence String Quartet, The Miro String Quartet, just to name a few.

He was also recently commissioned by a private foundation to make bows for the Royal House of Denmark.

They are in use by members of symphony orchestras in Amsterdam, Chicago, Montreal, New York, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St.Paul, Tokyo, Paris, Toulouse, Nice, Taiwan, Dusseldorf,  Victoria, and many others.

His bows are also being sold in Japan and Europe.

He has made the quartets of presentations bows for the Banff International String Quartet Competition since its inception.

He is the co-developer of the THERAPEUTIC CHINREST, a devise used to correct chronic pain of the neck and lower back in violinists and violists.

He makes conductor's batons for such maestros as Mario Bernardi.

Michael is married to violinist / teacher DOLORES , former concertmaster of the Vancouver Island Symphony Orchestra. They make their home on GABRIOLA, a few minutes from Nanaimo, British Columbia.