Stephen P. Fredericksen’s career with music began with the violin at the age of 10. But it was to be the Double Bass that was destined to become his primary instrument when a year later his school music teacher said he was “too big for the violin” and should switch.

Since that time, he studied with a number of teachers, including Milton Beisiegal , formerly the Principal Double Bassist of the New Haven Symphony, and as an Undergraduate at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT. He has performed with numerous orchestras from community to professional throughout Connecticut, and has been a featured soloist as well. Though his primary training was classical in nature, he can also regularly be heard as a jazz and musical theatre bassist. 

Stephen’s career also includes a number of conducting and teaching credits, and a great many successes as a theatre director. But, in spite of all this, his passion lies with the repair and restoration of stringed instruments. 

Beginning as a teenager, Stephen learned his craft by doing, while also being guided by a number of local Master Craftsmen. His two strongest influences were the late Frank DeLeone of New Haven, from whom he learned the structure and intricacies of the violin, viola, cello and bass, and Frank’s son Louis, who later encouraged him to jump into the work with vigor, and guided his early steps as a professional repairman. One additional influence, that of his late father Max was to have a tremendous impact on his ability to work with and understand the characteristics of different types of wood, while always seeking the right solution to difficult or challenging problems. Though himself a custom gunstock shaper and not a musician, Stephen’s dad always delighted in his son’s ability to make broken instruments sing again, and was always there with a custom made tool, or scrap of specialty wood to help with the job. 

Today, Stephen continues to provide new life to tired instruments through his work with several of Connecticut school systems, while also serving the repair needs of a number of the area’s music stores, and individual musicians worldwide as he has done since 1994. He coaches students in many of the school districts for which he has done work, and his greatest joy is always hearing the music emanating from what he considers to be his “children”… the hundreds of instruments he has repaired over the years.