Tomáš Skála

Tomáš Skála was born in Mladá Boleslav and he has spent all his childhood in northern Bohemia in the Town Štětí, close to Litoměřice. Since early childhood he was interested in sports, mainly football and also had a passion for cars and motorbikes. Therefore at the age of 14 he studied to become a car mechanic. He continued working in this field for only 2 years. Then came a big change in his live as he moved to western Bohemia to serve in the army in the town Aš. Not far from there were Luby u Chebu, where he met his wife Martina Lupačová, a daughter of the famous master luthier Emil Lupač.

In 1990 he started working for the largest producer of musical instruments in the region in Cremona Luby. During the 4 years of his employment there he finished his studies and became a luthier. In the following years he worked for a Czech-Korean company where top quality instruments were made. Since 1997 he started his own business and works in an atelier together with his father-in-law and teacher, the well-known master luthier Emil Lupač.

Association of Professional Violinmakers

At the turn of the millenium he passed the aprobatory exams in the atelier of Tomáš Pilař in Hradec Králové and thus became a member of the association of professional violinmakers “Kruh Umělců Houslařů”. This association unites some forty best violin makers in the Czech Republic. Now he can as well be titled „Master Luthier“.

Master luthier Tomáš Skála was exhibiting his instruments at international exhibitions in Germany and Holland and also took part in competitions in Mittenwald, Germany and in Utah, USA. His instruments are best known for their tonal qualities and for excellent craftsmanship. His construction is based on classical Guarneri and Stradivari models.

Stradivari & Guarneri

Tomáš Skála crafts his violins according to the 1720 Antonio Stradivari model,1743 Giuseppe Guarneri model or a 1779 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini model. His violas are based on 39 cm and 42.5 cm corpus length Antonio Stradivari model or on the mostly used 40.7 cm Giuseppe Guarneri model. He makes A. Stradivari based cellos with a modification of the string length of 68 – 69.5 cm. He also makes 7/8 size cellos with 66 cm string length. Double basses are made according to the model of Johan Bina from 1877 with a 3/4 corpus size and 106 cm string length. These instruments are varnished with an oil-spirit varnish, either fully or can be custom-made with a so called antique touch. The beauty and tonal qualities of each instrument is achieved by tuning the resonance plates with a sound generator, tapping on the plates and by careful selection of every piece and real feeling for the fascinating material.

Master instruments built by Tomáš Skála are played by musicians from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Spain, Holland, USA, Canada and also the far away Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

Tomáš Skála has with his wife Martina Skálová (born Lupačová) two children. Daughter Michaela is interested in teaching, music and sports. Son Tomáš is interested in music, sports and in the future he would like to follow the footsteps of his great-grandfather, grandfather and father and become a master luthier and devote his life to the same beautiful craft they did.