Ute made the back of the violin. Her search for a wood with suitable density, texture and color led her first to Wood from the Hood, an urban tree salvage business. Eventually she visited her friend, bowmaker, Lee Guthrie in Hudson, Wisconsin, who had what she needed. The piece of Cherry wood came from a tree that Lee had cut 45 years earlier as part of his previous life as a land surveyor.

Ute Zahn graduated from the violinmaking school in Newark, England in 1987. Her violin making and repair studio is in Minneapolis.