Hannes Vitalis Karinkanta:

Born in Pajala, Finland, in 1901, he arrived in Argentina with his relatives when he was eight years old. There he grew up and later made his own family.

Mechanical technician first, and owner of a small hardware store, at the beginning of 1930 his son Arne (violin student) needed his instrument to be repaired. So he decided to use his practical abilities to try to repair it himself. He took the instrument to pieces and patiently and concerned repaired it leaving it in condition to be used. Thus he continued working on other instruments, improving and constantly perfecting his art.

He managed to build forty violins of very high sound and handmade quality, and he became a respected professional violinmaker. Hannes´violins have been appreciated and praised by international violinists that tested them when they came to Buenos Aires, among them Yehudi Menuhin and Zino Francescatti.

Arne Karinkanta:

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1924, he studied violin with Luis Lafont and the Venezuelan violinist América Montenegro. He began his 30 year career integrating the orchestras of the Teatro Argentino de la Plata and the Colón Theater of Buenos Aires.

At the same time he learned his father´s art of violinmaking, becoming a specialist violinmaker in restoration of very delicate instruments. He remembers having worked with Uto Ughi´s Stradivarius Kreutzer, during the visit that the violinist did in Argentina in 1983. He has also built about 23 violins some of them can be identified by the eagle of two heads on the back that reminds of the Finnish origin of their family.