Nancy Benning

Nancy Benning was born in Chicago, IL. Her father Paul Toenniges, brother-in-law of the famous Chicago violin maker Carl Becker Sr., took the family to LA in the early 1940s and began to work with the Wurlitzer firm. For several years he worked in a workshop over his garage. Later on in 1953, Paul and his wife Ruth, opened their own music store called Studio City Music.

Nancy began working in her parents’ workshop when she was 11 years old, learning the art of restoration and repair. At the age of 22, she entered the Violin Making School in Mittenwald, Germany, where she met her husband Hans Benning. Together they went back to the US in 1964 and started to work at Studio City Music, with Nancy’s parents.

In 1978, Nancy and Hans took over the business along with Nancy’s sister, Jane Fink. It was then the transition from a general music store to a store specialized in violin, viola, cello and viol (viola da gamba). Benning Violins is the evolution of the business in the prestigious name that has become known world wide today.

Nancy currently spends most of her time in the store, but she also maintains a workshop in her home where she participates, with her son Eric Benning, in the manufacture of handmade instruments.

During the last 30 years, she has been travelling to Mexico, where she taught once a month at an orphanage and now teaches regularly at Benning in the Ensenada headquarters, our Music Academy named after Hans and Nancy Benning.

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