LASKIN, WILLIAM (GRIT)

William "Grit" Laskin has been building concert-level guitars for more than 43 years. His steel-string, classical and flamenco guitars are known and coveted around the world. Players of his instruments include: K.D. Lang, Ben Mink, Rik Emmett, Tom Cochrane, Jesse Cook, Wayne Johnson, Tom Chapin, Garnet Rogers, Stan Rogers, Ottmar Liebert, Ken Whiteley, James Keelaghan, Cathy Fink, Lillebjorn Nilsen. Commissions from guitarmaker colleagues and others within the trade include Bill Collings (Collings Guitars, Texas), Roger Sadowsky (Sadowsky Guitars, New York), Dick Boak (director, Martin Guitars, PA), Larry Sifel (pres., Pearlworks, MD). His current waiting list of commissions is 25 months long.
In 1997, he received Canada's prestigious Saidye Bronfman Award For Excellence, the first and only instrument maker to be so honored. He is also an elected fellow of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts, and included both in the University Of Toronto's "Who's Who In Canada" as well as the Encyclopedia of Music In Canada. In 2010, he received the Estelle Klein Lifetime Achievement Award and most recently, on June 30, 2012 he was awarded the Order Of Canada, which is Canada's highest civilian honor for those who enhance the national fabric.
In addition to building the instruments, Laskin uses them as "canvases" for his engraved inlay art. He is now internationally acknowledged as having single-handedly taken the tradition of musical instrument decoration beyond the purely decorative. For Laskin, the inlay medium has become a tool for communication, not merely embellishment. For more information, visit Laskin's website or contact him directly.