Coaxing melodies out of fir and maple

In his charming ground-floor workshop in the Athenian neighborhood of Galatsi, the violin Dimitris Kakos holds in his capable hands is more than an instrument; it is a thread stretching back three centuries to Cremona in northern Italy. The 30-year-old craftsman, one of just a handful of luthiers in Greece right now, feels that Niccolo Paganini's soul lives on in his tidy shelves and drawers containing the tools of his trade. 

And it is an exacting trade, so challenging that it has made him humble. "We don't use electric tools, which help move the pace along, here. Everything takes time," he says.

'Making the instruments for a classical string quartet is like making your family whole,' 

Having gotten into the business in 2015 and opened his workshop in 2019, Kakos has so far made around 40 instruments (violins, violas and cellos),...