About me

I was born in Breno in the province of Brescia in 1963 and in 1967 my family moved to Cremona. Not even fourteen years old, in 1977 I enrolled at the International School of Violin Making in Cremona, driven by my passion for violin making which in the meantime I had come from living in the “City of Violin”, a passion that I cultivated with care and that fortunately become my job.

During my free afternoons during the four years of school, I worked in various workshops of Masters who helped me grow as a violin maker. During the first two years, I was welcomed and mentored by Maestro Massimo Negroni; in the third year, I worked with Maestro Giobatta Morassi; and in the fourth year, I worked with Maestro Francesco Bissolotti. These precious hours were spent learning and refining various construction techniques, experimenting with different styles and character concepts, absorbing as much of their experience and sensibility as possible, learning about wood, and listening to the stories of their personal relationships with 20th-century masters such as Ornati, Garimberti, Sgarabotto, and Sacconi. These moments proved crucial in the years that followed for the creation of my instruments.
Concurrently, during the first two years at the International School of Violin Making, I attended the evening bowmaking course taught by Maestro Giovanni Lucchi, and for the following two years, the evening course in bowed instrument restoration taught by Maestro Bruce Carlson.

The days in those years began at 8 am and ended at 11 pm, but I was always more motivated and enthusiastic, the fatigue never overwhelmed me and every day I learned something new (but this happens even now) and I passed from school to workshops to evening courses with a fluidity that only a great passion can make possible.

After graduating in 1981 with Maestra Wanna Zambelli, to whom I owe so much, Maestro Bruce Carlson, with my great joy and gratitude, invited me to work with him. I remained there for almost ten years, dedicating myself primarily to the restoration of stringed instruments and the study of the antique instruments I restored along the way.
Thanks to his teachings, I mastered the most complex restoration techniques and gained extensive experience in set-up and acoustical improvement, thanks also to the many musicians who passed through that workshop, many of whom remain my loyal clients today.

From the experiences made in those fifteen years I realized that continuous study and research are essential to find the right combinations in every instrument, and that it is always necessary to study and learn every day from the important tradition of classical violin making that the great Cremonese Masters of the past have left to us with their works.

In 1991 I opened my workshop in Cremona, where I continue the restoration work and the construction of violins which I try to bring to the highest standards of construction quality and sonority. My passion for violin making always pushes me to find the perfect instrument, able to combine beauty and pleasure with the highest possible quality, and it is precisely on this ideal that all my work is founded. Each new instrument represents for me a challenge towards the creation of an instrument that stands out for its uniqueness, its beauty and its sound quality, obtainable only with the dedication, experience and sensitivity necessary to find the unique balance and unrepeatable of every instrument.

I think it is thanks to all this that the quality of my instruments and restoration work is requested by musicians and soloists from all over the world, to whom I try to give back, through my works, all the passion for my job.

I also tried to promote the great Cremonese Violin Making Tradition by committing myself to the creation of “Consortium Antonio Stradivari Cremona” of which I was a founding member and first President from 1996 to 1999 and from which I resigned when I was a councilor in 2001 seen that the ideals that had led to its creation, over time have taken paths which I do not agree with. Then I was also President of the CNA Violin Makers Group of Cremona and National Vice President of the CNA National Artistic Crafts Association and a member of the “Entente Internationale des Maitres Luthiers et Archetiers d’Art” the prestigious association that for 60 years has united the most appreciated violin makers and bowmakers of the world.

In 2026 I have reached 49 years of work as violin maker, and I am still not tired at all and I know that I still have many, too many things to learn.