Company Information

Giovanni Battista Morassi was born in July, 1934 at Arta in Udine, Italy. Given his family background in which his maternal grandfather operated a lumbermill and his maternal uncle made violins, it seemed that his future in violin making was inevitable. Urged by his teacher at his vocational school and his father’s friend, and with a four-year scholarship from the Udine Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, he entered the International School of Violin Making at Cremona in 1955. He graduated from the International School of Violin Making in 1971 and maintained that Status until his voluntary retirement in 1983.

His violins won Italian and international prizes and are used by famous orchestra violinists and soloists. He contributed greatly to the education of many successful Italian and foreign students at Cremona. He judges numerous domestic and foreign music contests. His string instruments are based on either the classical Cremonese school like Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu in particular, or on his personal model. He also devotes himself to the restoration of old instruments.

His message: The violins that are perfect in their artistic, and cultured aspects are produced when a right balance between wood technology and the makers’ powerful and individualistic varnish is met.

 

Ivano Coratti was born in 1933 at Ospital Monacale in the northern Italian province of Ferrara. He was already a carpentry apprentice when he enrolled in the clarinet class at the Conservatoire of Bologna where he received diplomas in both clarinet and bassoon playing He later joined one of the Bologna orchestras.

Coratti began making string instruments on his own in 1964. His triumph at a competition of violinmakers in 1973 led to a meeting with G. B. Morassi, whose profound and extensive knowl-edge in the art of classical Cremonese string instrument making helped Coratti to improve his technical and artistic capabilities.

In 1979 he became a founding member of the A. L. I. (Italian Luthiers Association) and served as Vice President of the newly formed group. Between 1981 and 1985 he taught violin making at the Conservatoire G. Frescobaldi of Ferrara.

In respect to his own string instrument making, he feels that: “Nothing else in this world gives me more joy than to construct my instruments, despite the fact that after the work is completed, there always remains something unsatisfactory for me. The very small disappointment leads me simply to a continued research and perhaps this very aspect of instrument making is what interests me most.

 

Joachim Schade was born in 1934, in Halle.

He writes: I hope that I can handle my instruments better than pencils and that I can express joys and pleasures of violin making which motivate me and on which players of the instruments of my making express themselves in their own ways. I am inspired by the totality of the violin making culture and by its individuality and capability of enhancing improvisation.

 

Louis B. Bellini was born in 1935, in Monte Azul Paulista, Brazil. He began his career as a wood sculptor, learning from and working with Mr.Pascoli from 1955 to 1960. However, his reputation as an extremely reliable violinmaker and restorer of old instruments was built during his days with Mr. Sacconi at the Wurlitzer workshop in New York.

His message concerning his work: My immense admiration for the work of the great old master has inspired and motivated me to devote all my efforts in making exact reproductions, a work that I have always loved, in part maybe because I feel that the process of learning never ends.

Premysl O. Spidlen was born in 1920 and can be called the doyen of Czech luthiers.

He writes: I come from an old violin making family. Already my grandfather and my father as well, were violinmakers. And now my son, Jan is working with me; so he is the fourth generation of our Family. All my life I have worked on new instruments and I have tried to solve the secret of Stradivari’s instruments. I used my grandfather’s and my father’s methods as well as all the known methods of modern science. I mostly worked according to the Stradivari model although the Joseph Guarneri model isn’t less attractive for me. My ideal is the strong, well balanced and velvet sound of a concert violin.

I have paid maximal attention and effort to the varnish which I suppose to be one of the most important parts of the Cremonese instrument’s success. I prepare the varnish myself and after innumerable attempts I think I have approached very close to, or maybe I have achieved the same varnish as Stradivari had, but only the future can prove it.

A lot of excellent well-known soloists have played my instruments with the same success as the Cremonese instruments.

Togliani in 1927. In 1944, He began his career by self-teaching. At the age of 24, he took his latest violin to the SCUOLA INTERNAZIAL DI LIUTERIA DI CREMONA and he was encouraged to enter the scuola by maestro Peter Talar. He obtained his diploma in 1955, and moved to Parma. After winning numerous prizes he taught violin making at both the CONSERVATORIO A. BOITO DI PARMA and the SCUOLA COMMMUNALE DI LIUTERIA DI MILANO from 1975. In 1980 he was invited as the guest of honor to the International Exhibition of Contemporary violin Making in Tokyo and Osaka. He created 185 violins, 56 violas, 37 violincellos, 3 contrabasses, 2 viola d’amore, one lute, and other string instruments.

He describes his work as: The model of the violin is personal, but of course it has been inspired by the traditional Cremonese model on the lines of Amati and Stradivari. The model has great elegance and plasticity. The varnish used is generally orange-red of mixed composition (essential oil and alcohol).

Born in a village, in Akita Japan, in 1945, Tetsuo Matsuda credits a childhood surrounded by music as the inspiration for his violin skills.

A village in the mountains devoid of any amusements of particular kind, drinking and singing folk songs were the only pleasure available to the neighborhood. Good at playing the shamisen, my uncle often accompanied singers. Although he had a fine voice himself, he seldom sang due to his physical problem. When he did sing, people marvelled at the outstanding sonority of his voice. Quite naturally, my elder brothers, who were also good on their own, used to sing too. So far as I can remember, folk songs were always around me in my boyhood, but how could I predict that this would have any bearing upon what I am presently doing?

It was soon after I came to Tokyo that I became interested in western classical music, notably violin music. It so happened that a violinmaker lived near by and I began learning the basics of his profession. Unable to abandon my dream to study in Europe which has its musical tradition of many hundred years, in 1977, I went to Italy. With my eyes closed, whenever I mused over what violin sound is, my uncle’s singing voice, not too strong yet tenacious and far reaching, started resounding through my head and I felt that I heard his voice overlapped with the sound of the famous Italian violins. Thinking about colors of varnish reminds me of splendidly colored leaves in autumn in the country mountains. Looking back upon my past, I say to myself that though I was brought up in an environment without a history of instrument manufacture, my instinets were fostered in that mountain village of mine.

Sergio Peresson was born in 1913, in Udine, Italy. After the Second World War, he moved to Venezuela where he mainly repaired violins for the Venezuelan Symphony. In the early 1960,s he moved his domicile to the United States where he began making violins on his own as well as doing repairs. By the time of his death in 1991, at the age of 78, a number of his instruments were owned by illustrious players, including soloists around the globe.

Although his instruments sound like those of the Stradivarius or Guarnerius instruments. Peresson likes to think there is also a distinct Peresson sound. He firmly believes that important elements in any musical instrument are a beautiful and rich tone, carring or projecting power, and being responsive to the fingers of the player. He likens violin making to violin playing, in that with both, the genuinely great can be distinguished easily from the good.

Mrs. Peresson sends a message on her late husband’s behalf: My instruments are my own model, and in my opinion the principal qualities of an ideal violin, viola or violincello are beauty, quality, eveness and clarity of tone, rich sonority, powerful projection, and quick and easy response.

He was born in 1926 into a well known Czech violin making family. His son, Tomas, learned violin making from him, and now his grandson, Jan is also learning the craft too under him.

Vladimir Pilar successfully participated in various international violin making competitions and was active as a judge in many international contests.

For his instruments he uses expensive resonance woods, that is, spruce-fir and maple which are somewhat more than 35 years old. He follows the traditional ways set out by the old masters but, being aware of at the same time all the new methods that modern science and research have brought about, he applies them as much as possible to his work. Through this it is possible to discover and prove in detail all the characteristics of the woods used for the masterpiece instruments and using a matching construction method, to make new masterpiece instruments with a more powerful sound quality.

Regarding the conditions surrounding the manufactures in the former communist countries, no particular mention is needed. By now no less than 70 of his violins have been brought into Japan.