Alois Honek

Who was Alois Honek?

Alois Vincenc Honek was a famous Czech violin-maker and surgeon. He was born in Dehylov, Silesia on October 25, 1911. His father also was a violin-maker, and Alois started to learn the art of violin-making in 1919. In 1929, as a high school student, he finished this education by presenting a sample work to his teacher. Upon the teacher’s evaluation, he received a diploma certifying him as a professional violinmaker. It was delivered to him by his father in the day of his 18th birthday, on October 25, 1929.

After finishing high school, Dr. Honek moved to Prague and started studying medicine at the Charles University, despite his father's wishes for him to become a professional violin-maker. A couple years later he became a doctor. Though the profession of a surgeon is very demanding, he devoted all of his free time until the very end of his live to violin-making and research. He died unfortunately due to an injury at the age of almost 91 on June 30, 2002.

A. V. Honek started to study the famous secrets of the Cremona violin-makers as a fifteen years old high school student. He was asked for a translation of an old Latin text concerning violins and he was allowed to make a copy.