Jeanne Gascon at the Sifasilajouer workshop - 2022

Jeanne Gascon, winner of the 2022 Savoir-faire en transmission awards, did her internship in the Sifasilajouer workshop with Mélanie Kaltenbach, in the 13th district of Paris.

Already as a child, Jeanne wanted to be a violin maker. After high school, however, she decided to pursue general studies: a literary preparatory class, then studies in History and Cultural Project Management. She then began a career in show production with the choreographer Blanca Li. At the same time, her desire to make violins never left her, so she enrolled in an amateur course and began to make a violin. After several internships and meetings with professionals in the field, she entered the École Nationale de Lutherie de Mirecourt where she spent two years and obtained her CAP. However, she chose to complete her training in a workshop, convinced that she would learn the most in a professional setting. She then applied for the Savoir-faire en transmission awards.

"I felt an urgency to be in the workshop full-time. Retraining pushes us to our limits because time is more precious than ever: it forces us to listen to ourselves and make choices that aren't always obvious, but which seem the most relevant to us."

Jeanne Gascon

When Jeanne arrived, she began by restoring her own instrument. She took advantage of the opportunity to discover techniques and make improvements to the interior of her violin that had never been done before. As time goes by, she accompanies Mélanie Kaltenbach on specific productions: "The customer instruments that come into the workshop over time give us each the opportunity to open up or deepen a chapter that we had to tackle during my training, which is great!

During her internship, Jeanne discovers new ways of doing her job, more concrete and less academic: "This internship is very dense! Since I arrived, the workshop's activity has enabled us to tackle a lot of different subjects".

When discussing future prospects with Jeanne, her heart sways between creating from scratch and catering: "Right now, both are pretty much in my head! I'm curious to see the opportunities that will allow me to make a choice."