Michèle Ashley cello, Boston 2009

North American luthier Michèle Ashley was raised in the United States and completed her secondary education in France, where she studied cello and ethnomusicology. At age 19, she moved to Italy to train as a violin maker at the International School of Violin Making in Cremona, where she worked with Giovanni Battista Morassi and Pietro Sgarabotto.

Ashley established her own workshops in Parma and Verona, where she studied briefly with Renato Scrollavezza. She later relocated to Mantua to join the famed workshop of Mario Gadda, for whom she worked and made copies for many years. In 1985, Ashley moved to Boston, where she began to focus primarily on building cellos. She has made over 130 instruments, which are owned and played by professional symphony musicians, students, and faculty of the top conservatories in the country. In 2004, she opened a second shop in Montréal, Quebec, and she spends her time living and working in both Canada and the United States.