My Space: Wai Yong Tham’s Singapore workshop

There are a few luthiers in Singapore but hardly any who are making their own instruments. I started around ten years ago, having been a psychiatrist for most of my life. I was looking for a full-size violin for my daughter and realised there was so much to learn about stringed instruments and why they make the sounds they do; I started digging deeper and deeper, reading and watching videos on YouTube, and I soon decided I wanted to learn how to make them. So I taught myself for around five years and now I’ve made eight violins, two guitars and a ukelele. I’ve also set up this workshop in my home near the centre of Singapore. And I’ll soon be working on a violin for my daughter, who’s now a student at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester…