Violin makers tune in to tradition of Stradivarius in Italy's Cremona
Violin body patterns are pictured in the workshop of Cremona's current oldest luthier, Hungary's Stefano Conia (74) in Cremona.
Working in the shadow of the great masters, the violin makers of Italy’s Cremona are valiantly fighting a shrinking market and foreign competition as they seek perfection, one violin at a time.
The birthplace of Stradivarius, Cremona is a veritable laboratory for luthiers from all over the world, where violin workshops seem to be everywhere you look.
Stefano Conia’s studio — just one of the 160 in this northern Italian city of 70,000 inhabitants — has not changed for decades.
It’s situated at the back of a flower-filled courtyard, and this native Hungarian, one of the doyens of Cremonese violin makers, heads there every day, despite retiring nearly 10 years ago.
“If I stopped making violins, life for me would be over. Every day I’m here in the workshop. It’s an antidote to old age,” said a smiling Conia, 74, whose father crafted violins and whose son is also pursuing the family tradition.
Conia’s workbench faces that of his son. Both are covered with files, clamps, compasses, brushes and small saws. Wooden planks are laid on the floor.
“Going into violin-making was a natural choice,” said Conia’s son, Stefano, known as “the youngster” who began handling tools at the age of seven or eight. He spent his childhood in the workshop his father opened in 1972, two months before his birth.
“I would play with the wood and the musicians would come and buy their violins and play,” said the younger Conia. “It’s always been a special atmosphere, which I really liked.”
For the Conias, the violins lovingly made from flamed maple or spruce are more than just instruments — they become family.
“The instruments are a bit like children. They live thanks to the energy we give them, it is a part of us that will continue to live after our death,” said Stefano Conia.
Stefano Conia Jr, 47, carves a violin scroll at the workshop of his father.
Cradle of violin-making
Like the Conias, the majority of Cremona’s luthiers are foreigners. Many came to study at the city’s International School of Violin-making and stayed on.
“The school was started in 1938, the first teachers were foreigners and the students come from all over the world. There’s a saying that ‘Nobody is a prophet in his own country’ and it’s true that we, Cremonese violin makers, are really few and far between,” said Marco Nolli, 55, one of this exclusive club.
Of the third of Cremona's violin-makers who are Italian, only about 10 percent come from Cremona, he said.
Benedicte Friedmann, a 45-year-old from France, has been living in “the cradle of violin-making” for about 20 years.
“Coming to Cremona was — and maybe it’s a bit pretentious to say this — like walking in the footsteps of the greatest, Stradivarius, Guarneri, Amati,” she said, referring to the city’s most revered craftsmen of centuries past.
“Being a luthier here means being able to devote yourself 100 percent to creating instruments. And the more you do, the better you become,” said Friedmann.
In France, she explained, in order to earn a living as a violin maker, many people do repairs, re-hair bows, sell accessories, which leaves them little time for their art.
The situation is not always simple, however, for the violin makers of Cremona, who enjoyed growth in the 1960s -1980s, before things got tougher.
“Our market, which is an elite market, has shrunk. We are facing a very serious problem,” said Giorgio Grisales, the president of the artisans’ consortium.
Fewer performances and musical venues and the preference of seasoned violinists for antique instruments from the 18th and 19th centuries have hurt the niche industry.
Italy is in fifth position of world’s major producer of bowed instruments, with 4.6 percent of world exports, behind the United Kingdom and Germany but ahead of France. Italy’s main customers are Japan and the United States.
