Biography

Aloha!

My name is Michael Wong, owner of Il Violino Cremona LLC in Hawaii.

I was born and raised on Oahu and graduated from Moanalua High School. Like many kids in Hawaii, music was part of my life—but for me, the violin became more than an instrument. It became a dream.

Even as a young violinist, I noticed something was missing. In Hawaii, finding high-quality violins—properly set up, comfortable to play, and truly inspiring—was incredibly difficult. Choices were limited, and the instruments that did arrive often came from far away, never meant to survive our climate.

Still, I kept playing, holding onto a quiet dream: one day, I would open a violin shop in Hawaii.

In high school, I began ordering instruments from mainland shops, hoping to find something better. Instead, many arrived warped by climate change, painfully set up, or even cracked beyond repair. Wood expands and contracts 24/7, and the violins suffered—so did my body and my spirit.

I tried selling instruments on consignment, struggling to keep them playable. Slowly, the dream began to fade. I wondered if opening a violin shop in Hawaii was simply impossible.

After high school, life led me elsewhere. I continued playing the violin, but my career shifted. I became an auditor at a state tax department after getting my MBA. It was a stable job, a good job—and for a while, I accepted that maybe music would remain only a part of my life, not my purpose.

The dream stayed quiet, buried under responsibility.

Yet music never fully let go of me.

During this period, I was given rare opportunities to play legendary instruments by Stradivari, Guarneri, and Guadagnini worth millions of dollars. Holding these violins—feeling their balance, depth, and soul—changed something deep inside me. They showed me what was possible when craftsmanship, history, and care come together.

Around the same time, I was unexpectedly invited by Maxim Vengerov’s management team in Japan to serve as an emcee at the last minute after his concert for a post-concert dinner party. Standing on that stage, something extraordinary happened.

Without planning it, I said out loud that I would one day open a violin shop in Honolulu.

The words surprised even me. Looking back now, I believe that moment was a quiet promise to myself—and perhaps part of a greater plan.

Not long after, my life came to a sudden halt.

One day at work, I struggled to breathe and fainted. I was rushed to the emergency room. Test after test revealed nothing—no diagnosis, no clear answers. I lived in constant fatigue and fear, calling in sick for three months.

Eventually, I had to leave my job entirely to focus on surviving.

I didn’t know who I was without my career. I didn’t know what the future held. All I knew was that everything I thought was stable… wasn’t.

In January 2019, while having dinner at Ala Moana Center with my wife and our three-month-old daughter, my phone rang.

It was a friend from Japan—someone who rarely called.

He gave me ideas to open a violin shop in Hawaii.

I hesitated. I was scared. My health was fragile. The future felt uncertain.

But my wife looked at me and said, “You should do it.”

On May 31, 2019, we opened the shop with my friend’s help from Japan.

We started with just three violins.

To me, it wasn’t small—it was the realization of a childhood dream.

Less than a year later, in March 2020, COVID-19 shut the world down. The shop was forced to close temporarily. My friend from Japan could no longer continue, and suddenly, I was alone.

I was terrified.

But with the unwavering support of my family, teachers, students, and parents in the community, I chose to keep going.

What followed wasn’t just survival—it was transformation.

Over the next six years, IL Violino Cremona grew beyond anything I had imagined.

Today, we are the largest violin shop in Hawaii, trusted by world-class professionals and supported by a global network of over 30 of the finest luthiers around the world. Our shop now houses several hundred carefully selected instruments, and we continue to grow.

Instrument repairs, setups, and bow rehairs are performed using techniques I learned directly from top violin and bow makers in Italy 🇮🇹—bringing a level of craftsmanship to Hawaii that once felt unreachable.

My mission is simple, but deeply personal:

Hawaii deserves access to exceptional instruments—across all price ranges—with excellent sound, comfort, and long-term care.

I want students to play without pain.

I want parents to invest with confidence.

I want teachers to trust the instruments their students hold.

Most of all, I want our community to experience what truly great instruments can offer.

I am profoundly grateful to the parents, students, and teachers who believe in the importance of quality instruments. Your trust made this journey possible.

As my love for the violin continues to grow every day, my search for the finest instruments in the world will never end. I look forward to sharing my greatest discoveries—from Italy and beyond—with our community here in Hawaii.

This is not just a shop.

This is a promise to the music, the makers, and the people of Hawaii.