About Top Notch Violins
Ted Moniak

Master Craftsman (co-owner)
ted (at) topnotchviolins.com
Chris Clark

Operations (co-owner)
chris (at) topnotchviolins.com
We would rather spend time educating you about an instrument—even if you don’t end up buying it—than sell you the wrong instrument. If you end up with an instrument that’s not right for you–we have failed.
Tilton Yokley

Sales Manager
Susan Trowbridge Adams

Rental Manager
susan (at) topnotchviolins.com
Quality. It’s the way we work. We know our reputation is built on the little things—and we take the time to do things right.
Sanford Field

Workshop Luthier
Mark Wallace

Customer service
Mark Wallace has been a professional musician in the St. Louis area for the last 12 years. He received his Bachelors and Masters in Music, with an emphasis in Jazz performance, from Webster University. He performs Klezmer with Rabbi Jim Goodman, folk music with Mt. Thelonious, hiphop with his project tristaño, and everything else with his cover band Wax Museum. The last six years he has been an adjunct at Washington University as a jazz bass instructor and jazz ensemble director.
Locally Owned - It Matters!
While we officially opened our doors in 2014, we’ve actually been around for many years. Prior to Top Notch, our three owners worked at a different violin store here in the St. Louis area, one owned by an out-of-state businessman. While such an arrangement can likely work well in some situations, eventually it became too difficult for us to fulfill our customer-service vision with the restrictions placed on us by the (yes, we’ll say it again) out of state owner.
While we suspected this would be the case, since 2014 we can say this: what an amazing difference it makes to have the business owners actually IN the business, working each day, helping customers, repairing instruments, and simply being a part of the community! Our children attend the schools here. They participate in orchestra. And yes, you’ll find half of our ownership team in our workshop. This is our passion.