Michel Proulx

Michel Proulx was born in Québec City in 1948, in a music loving family. He studied classical humanities before working briefly for an architecture bureau. Then, he switched to instruments making, studying for some years with Italian master luthier Silvio de Lellis.

After a rather chaotic existence, through which he went to earn a history masters degree at the Paul Valéry University in Montpellier, he accepted the suggestion of a friend and colleague, master luthier Frédéric Becker, and specialised in baroque bowmaking, which he has been practicing since the early 2000. 

Since then, he has produced bows for the whole family of bowed instruments, both the violin family and the viols, and also for medieval instruments, notwithstanding some nyckelharpa bows, using various materials, usually letterwood (snakewood) for most bows, but also European woods (yew, cherry, servicewood, almondwood, etc.). 

He has been taking part in a number of early music festivals all through the years, mostly Festival Resonanzen in Vienna, Oude Muziek Festival in Utrecht, Alte Musik in Regensburg and lately, Canto Mundi in Paris. 

He lives and works in Montpellier, in the south of France.