Gregory S. Sapp
Gregory (Greg) Sapp provides high-level restoration and repair services to musicians and shops, around the United States, out of his shop in Illinois. Greg attended the Kenneth Warren & Son School of Violin Making (now the Chicago School of Violin Making), working under the guidance of Master Tschu Ho Lee. While in school, Mr. Lee commissioned two violas and a cello from Greg, and had him heavily engaged in doing repair work, as well. Greg graduated Violin Making School in December of 1981, achieving an "Excellence in Craftsmanship" grade.
After graduating from the Violin Making School, Greg worked at Kenneth Warren & Son in Chicago, a premier shop in the Midwest, where he worked directly with Mr. Zenon Petesh. This opportunity brought many challenging projects and provided many fine instruments of historical importance for him to work on. In 1986, Greg became Head Repairman and continued in that capacity through April of 1994.
In 1994, Greg opened a repair studio out of his home, providing repair and restoration services. While his main focus was restoration and repair, he also made a number of instruments in those years.
Early in 2003, Greg opened a part-time repair studio in downtown Chicago, where today he continues to perform the majority of repairs for Kenneth Warren and Son, as well as attending to walk-in customers by appointment. In 2006, with the help of his wife, Mary Ellen (Mel), he opened a full-service retail store in Batavia, IL.
Greg has been a regular contributor to the Oberlin Restoration Workshops. In addition to being one of the instructors in 2017 and 2023, he has been providing master classes and presentations on advanced restoration techniques for many years. He has dedicated much time and thought to creating devices to assist him with challenging restoration projects and enjoys sharing these items and concepts with his colleagues and the attendees at the Workshops.
In 2021, Greg was awarded a Gold Medal for his cello bridge, then in 2022, his violin and viola bridges were awarded 3rd place at the International Violin Bridge Competition.