Matt Kirby builds hammered dulcimers which incorporate his ideas about how they should sound and look. Some instruments feature a chromatic note layout of his design. The dulcimers are handcrafted to exacting standards of craftsmanship with designs influenced by the work of the California architects and furniture designers Charles and Henry Greene.  Matt has been playing the hammered dulcimer since 1976, and he has been building them since 1977.  Instruments are custom made to order, and Matt will play the hammered dulcimer, too, if you ask nicely.

In 1988, Matt was surprised to discover that he had been in the American Heritage Dictionary, 2nd College Edition, under “dulcimer” for 8 years, an artifact of his Boston street music performances during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Close, treasured friends were quick to point out that the picture was also in close proximity to “dull” and “dummy.”