Where Makers Take Wing: The Lutherie Program at Minnesota State College Southeast Turns 50

By Emily Wright | From the July/August 2025 issue of Strings

The year 1975 was a wild moment in history: With the disastrous war in Vietnam finally coming to its close in April, the optimism that limned the 1950s was well and truly dead. The struggles of the ’60s had left many with a sense of pragmatism that often skewed toward cynicism, but like green shoots emerging after a fire, there were signs of hope, if one knew where to look. The nascent Apollo-Soyuz project began, suggesting perhaps the Soviet Union could be more than a looming enemy for the west to fight proxy wars against. Pianist Keith Jarrett took to the stage of the Cologne Opera House and improvised the genre-defying Köln Concert. The Helsinki Accords were signed, signaling a real desire to enshrine human rights as fundamental. This was the context, the trailing edge of the postwar era, that saw the founding of a small school of stringed instrument repair that would become the violin repair and making program at Minnesota State College Southeast in Red Wing.

At the time, the school was called the Red Wing Area Vocational-Technical Institute, and it was looking for someone to run a lutherie program. Larry Frye, a newly graduated music education major from University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, would send in the sole application the school received for the opening. It’s safe to say that both school and applicant were incredibly lucky.

The program started out in a single classroom with a sink, some youthful enthusiasm, and not much else. At 22 years old, Frye was close to the same age (and sometimes considerably younger) as the students he was charged with instructing. Scrambling to set up a suitable workshop in time, he quickly ordered benches and tools in anticipation of the first cohort. At this time, the program was designed to encompass traditional violin lutherie as well as guitar making and repair. Mainly a violin guy, Frye started out with numerous guest lecturers to buttress the guitar side of the curriculum, sitting in as a student during these units himself. Eventually, the two would split into separate courses, although students are still welcome to study both violin and guitar repair and making. Some even elect to broaden their skillset further and enroll in the band instrument repair course. It is easy to imagine someone with all three of these courses under their belt being the MVP to musicians living in small towns far removed from specialty shops.

The program thrived, and after Larry Frye moved back to Wisconsin, David Vincent took over stringed instrument repair. A master luthier specializing in guitar and mandolin building, his instruments can be found in the hands of professionals and amateurs alike, and have been offered as prizes in contests like the Minnesota Flatpicking Guitar Championships. Eventually, the violin program would branch off, becoming its own course of study under Lisbeth Nelson Butler.

While so many aspects of the stringed instrument world are steeped in exceptionalism that borders on the punitive, Southeast welcomes welcomes all takers with the patience and persistence—and fine motor skills—to apply themselves to the task of making and repairing instruments. “It’s unusual that we consider a student to not be a good fit,” says Charlotte Matis, a 2002 graduate of the program who now teaches making and repair when she’s not running Blackbird Music Store in Minneapolis. When asked what makes their program special, Matis points to the advantage of practical experience: “We are very hands-on. The students are either at their workbenches or gathered around the instructors’ bench for a demonstration 95 percent of the time, and [instructors] are answering questions, checking students’ work, or walking around the room observing.”

The goal is to equip students with a foundation of experience, not just conceptual knowledge. Here, the similarities to the conservatory are unmistakable: students do the most common tasks, like carving bridges and making and adjusting soundposts, at least ten times. There is a real emphasis on being able to assess and work independently, and instructors encourage students to think critically about their process and develop the curiosity necessary to continue learning and perfecting their craft after they graduate. At the end of the year, in what must be an extraordinary moment, completed instruments are featured in a performance showcasing the work of each pupil.

A spirit of innovation and flexibility suffuses the ethos of the violin making and repair program at Southeast through the work of its dedicated faculty, like Steve Rossow, master luthier and current lead instructor. Faculty are figuring out the best way to introduce bow making to the curriculum, likely starting with a summer workshop. Says Matis, “We are very open to the evolution of the industry. Whatever is next for the greater violin making community is what’s next for us!”