{"id":37753,"date":"2024-06-04T06:49:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T06:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cremonamusica.com\/the-golden-age-of-violin-making-interview-with-andrea-varazzani\/"},"modified":"2024-06-04T07:02:38","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T07:02:38","slug":"the-golden-age-of-violin-making-interview-with-andrea-varazzani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cremonamusica.com\/en\/the-golden-age-of-violin-making-interview-with-andrea-varazzani\/","title":{"rendered":"The Golden Age of Violin Making. Interview with Andrea Varazzani"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>by Alessio Zuccaro<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Born in Naples in 1982, with a Neapolitan accent now softened by three decades of life in Lombardy, the luthier <strong>Andrea Varazzani<\/strong> trained in Cremona and carries on his workshop activity in Sesto Cremonese A chair holder at the International School of Violin Making, he has recently had to suspend teaching due to the increasingly numerous commissions from all over the world. We met him ahead of his participation in the <strong>Cremona Musica International Exhibitions and Festival,<\/strong> where for years his richly decorated instruments have attracted the attention of curious onlookers and enthusiasts.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What are the challenges of a master violin maker?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the case of the Cremona School of Violin Making \u2013 a higher institute open to anyone who wants to learn this craft \u2013 one often finds oneself working with a highly heterogeneous class group, with students from all over the world and of very different ages: this forces you to significantly diversify teaching strategies. I like to remember in this regard Massimo Negroni, my teacher, a great educator, capable of conceiving a teaching tailored to the student in front of him. But as much as I consider it a great stimulus, I had to pause the assignment: the workshop work is so much, with commissions coming from all over the world, that I do not have the material time to commit to both fronts. I hired boys to help, and I know that many other colleagues are in this happy situation: violin making is experiencing a golden moment.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Part of his success is certainly due to the richly ornamented instruments he offers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the decorations, all in oil, I rely on the work of a trusted artist, the restorer Luca Penzani. With him, I create copies of ancient instruments, in particular of Andrea Amati, who built them for wealthy French families and had them decorated by the Campi family. I find that this gives them an important added value: when I exhibit these instruments at the fair, I notice with pleasure a great interest from the public.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What are the major difficulties of his profession?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First of all, the detachment from the master can be traumatic. At 25, I thought I had already &#8220;arrived,&#8221; then I opened my own shop and realized how difficult it was to give up the support of my mentor. Another important challenge is to carve out one&#8217;s own space in the market. In this regard, I think that the entrepreneurial aspect of violin making is not adequately valued in our schools: finding buyers and dealers, following market movements, dedicating oneself to marketing and advertising, all commitments that the professional cannot and must not shirk. I had to make large investments to participate in the most important fairs in the world and meet potential clients. Today I can say that I have made a name for myself, I receive commissions &#8220;on trust&#8221; without even asking to try the instruments: a nice satisfaction, which repays all the sacrifices of a long and demanding journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Alessio Zuccaro Born in Naples in 1982, with a Neapolitan accent now softened by three decades of life in Lombardy, the luthier Andrea Varazzani trained in Cremona and carries on his workshop activity in Sesto Cremonese A chair holder at the International School of Violin Making, he has recently had to suspend teaching due [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[325],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-intervista-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cremonamusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cremonamusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cremonamusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cremonamusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cremonamusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cremonamusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cremonamusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cremonamusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cremonamusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cremonamusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}