Born in Nebraska, Louis Caporale started playing the violin at the age of 4. By 14 he was building violins. At 18, he was the youngest student enrolled at the Chicago School of Violin Making.
In time, he became a respected maker as well as teacher of the craft, and an expert appraiser/dealer of modern Italian violins from the Turin School (dated from the late 1800s to the early 1900s). Today, Caporale divides much of his time between his Yoyogi and Hachioji workshops, doing what he enjoys most — making violins and teaching violin making.
Caporale's mother was a violin teacher who instructed the young man in the Suzuki method from a tender age. (For those unfamiliar, the Suzuki method was developed in Japan by Shinichi Suzuki in the mid-20th century specifically to teach young people to play the violin by ear.)