Special thanks to @_cremonasera for the beautifully written and published article about the initiatives and new achievements of our Violinmaking Academy.
We are very proud to be able to make our reality more and more known and to convey our daily commitment.
May 24, 2021
“New viola da gamba course, conferences and important initiatives at Academia Cremonensis.
A leap in quality, greater commitment, and many new projects are at the heart of the Academia Cremonensis, which recently expanded its spaces in the Mina palace on Via Platina 66 with the rental of new rooms all frescoed and adorned with beautiful statues. A conference room has been built where a symposium on legislation in the violin-making sector recently took place, while a recording room for concerts and a classroom equipped for video lectures and lessons via online will soon be built.
But that’s not all: in fact, efforts are being made to organize in collaboration with anlai for next September an international conference and an exhibition of works by the winners of the violinmaking competitions of Baveno and Pisogne, two small tourist resorts that have been defined over time as “capitals” of violinmaking and have meant a great deal to many violinmakers now established in various countries.
The anlai also intended to propose master classes by great masters that are being discussed but could be implemented soon. Meanwhile, selections have been opened for the admission of students who will attend the Viola da gamba construction course. The Academia, alongside the three-year courses in violin making and strings, will hold summer meetings and master classes, courses for baroque violin, a course for copies of ancient instruments that has been entrusted to maestro Amorin, and plans are being made to organize courses in classical guitar and harpsichord. A qualitative leap, then indeed, of considerable importance for a city that wants in all respects to call itself the capital of violin making.
Meanwhile, in September, as mentioned, the viola da gamba course will kick off, considered one of the most representative instruments of Renaissance and Baroque music when it found a worthy place in courts throughout Europe. In fact, it is an instrument of great versatility capable of developing different timbral characteristics and distinguished by stylistic and ornamental refinement, It will last one year and will consist of 1,000 hours of lessons: it will be open to graduates in architecture, engineering and violin making and only 10 students in total will be allowed to take it.
The teachers will be the Mexican Carlos Pineda, who graduated from the Civic School of Milan after attending the school of violin making in Xalapa, created by graduates of Cremona, who is well known and appreciated by many musicians in the field, and the Spanish Laura Guijarro who graduated in Cremona from Ipial specializing in Baroque and Renaissance instrument making. The selections of future students involve many foreigners also because the cost is certainly not insignificant 12 thousand euros but the graduates will be able at the end of their studies to build at least one model of the instrument and devote themselves in the field and also to have also made all the necessary specialized equipment.”
Giorgia Coriselli
author
Article published by CremonaSera