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The Cultural District of Violin Making

The Cultural District of Violin Making

Why Cremona?

Heir to a centuries-old history that started in the 18th Century, Cremona is still today one of the world centres for violin-making and strings’ restoration.

The great skills of Amati family, followed and improved then by Guarnieri and Stradivari, allowed Cremona to specialize itself and to become repository of the art of violin-making and of a method that represents a school able to distinguish itself in the world panorama. A town with unique characteristics identified by the quality and quantity of its traditions, institutions and heritage connected to the art of sound. Cremona can boast a history full of famous protagonists such as Marcantonio Ingegneri, Claudio Monteverdi, Amilcare Ponchielli, Antonio Stradivari, the families Amati and Guarnieri. The world of music production is well-represented by Ponchielli Theatre, Monteverdi Festival, Stradivari Festival and by a long list of music shows and performances. The number and different characteristics of the schools, training centres, masterclasses, universities and research centres, of the people and of the knowledge connected to the world of musicology (from music learning to instruments-making) represent a unique example that was included in the Representative List of UNESCO Intangible Heritage on the 5th of December 2012.

The Cultural District

In Cremona there is a network that keeps alive the search for high level violin-making, defending its traditional know-how: the Cultural District of Violin-Making. It is a project supported by Cariplo Foundation, Cremona Municipality and Lombardy Region that involves the main training institutions connected to the theme of violin-making. Cremona Municipality is the project’s leader.

Some other institutions, together with Cremona Municipality, launched the project: the Violin’s Museum, the International School of Violin-Making, the Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage of Pavia University, Milan Poly-technical University (Cremona seat), the Special agency for professional training “Cr. Forma” and the Scientific Labs of the Violin’s Museum. In 2017, the District started a new path and decided to involve in its activities the entire community connected to violin-making, that means also the violin-makers and their associations.

The goals of the District are: safeguarding the ‘know-how’ of the artistic violin-making technique, reinforcing the relationships among the violin-makers and the partners of the District, increasing the artistic handicraft knowledge deriving from the mixture of violin-making and scientific research, from the long-lasting interaction between the training centres and the handicraft workshops, from the analysis of the heritage of the Violin-Making Civic Collections. All these elements contribute to the growth of Cremona’s attractiveness in the national and international panorama and to the innovation in the productive texture.

For this reason, the District supports the university didactics and research, the long-lasting training and the professional up-dating of the craftsmen, the planning activities at regional, national and European level and the fund-raising activities.

To discover Cremona www.turismocremona.it

chiudi
Violin Making

Violin Making

Violin Making

In Cremona there are more than 150 workshops: an extraordinary rich panorama to be explored in order to analyse, study and get in touch with the violin-making tradition. That’s why, every year, hundreds of students coming from all over the world decide to study in Cremona.

In the home-town of violin-making, learning this ancient art is even more exciting. The school “A.Stradivari” offers the basic training course to learn how to make string and plucked instruments, with the help of important masters who have been passing down the ancient tradition of Cremona’s violin-making.

Music

Music

Music

Cremona is not only the capital-city of violin-making, but it is also an important centre of music training. In Cremona you can find the academic courses of the Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage [link didattica], the artistic and music courses (pre-academic and academic) of the music school “C.Monteverdi” and [link] the music specialization courses of the Academy Walter Stauffer [link].

Music is an experience that characterizes the entire life of the town in its every single aspect as it is not only connected to the university and the research sector. Music contributes to the cognitive development of the children, it develops their expressive and communicative skills, creativity, tolerance and self-esteem. It is an important element of quality in the school-system of the town. The presence in Cremona of several music high schools, of a High School specialized in music and of the International School of violin-making made possible the creation of a big network connected to the public music training sector.

In the Nineties, thanks to the cooperation among the municipality departments, the schools, the Music School “Claudio Monteverdi” and with the support of some private subjects (like the Stauffer Foundation), Cremona started to propose a wide range of music curricular and extra-curricular activities for children and teenagers: propaedeutics, chorus, instruments’ learning, music training in high schools and opportunities to learn ensemble music.

Music

Music

Cremona is not only the capital-city of violin-making, but it is also an important centre of music training. In Cremona you can find the academic courses of the Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage [link didattica], the artistic and music courses (pre-academic and academic) of the music school “C.Monteverdi” and [link] the music specialization courses of the Academy Walter Stauffer [link].

Music is an experience that characterizes the entire life of the town in its every single aspect as it is not only connected to the university and the research sector. Music contributes to the cognitive development of the children, it develops their expressive and communicative skills, creativity, tolerance and self-esteem. It is an important element of quality in the school-system of the town. The presence in Cremona of several music high schools, of a High School specialized in music and of the International School of violin-making made possible the creation of a big network connected to the public music training sector.

In the Nineties, thanks to the cooperation among the municipality departments, the schools, the Music School “Claudio Monteverdi” and with the support of some private subjects (like the Stauffer Foundation), Cremona started to propose a wide range of music curricular and extra-curricular activities for children and teenagers: propaedeutics, chorus, instruments’ learning, music training in high schools and opportunities to learn ensemble music.

restoration

restoration

Restoration

In Cremona, since 2016, it has been active at the Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage the only course of studies in Italy that teaches you how to become a restorer of music and scientific instruments. It is a course that lasts 5 years and, at the end of it, you can get the qualification that allows you to restore items coming from private and public collections. Moreover, at the Violin’s Museum, you can find the Non-Invasive Diagnostic Workshop, where the cutting-edge technologies and methodologies are applied to the analysis of historical string instruments.

Cremona offers also some courses that allow you to become assistant restorer, a person that technically assists the restorer in all the phases of his work on the cultural heritage. The courses last three years and they take place at Cr.Forma.

the sound's study

the sound's study

The Sound’s Study

In 2016, in Cremona, it was launched the course of music acoustics engineering that is about the processes involved in the birth, analysis, processing and use of the music sound. The two-years course is organized by Poly-technical University of Milan and it offers the possibility to attend at the same time the courses offered by the Department of Musicology of Pavia University (studies on the organ and restoration of music instruments). Moreover, in the Research Workshops at the Violin’s Museum it is active the Musical Acoustic Lab of Poly-technical University of Milan, that is about advanced research in vibrometric and acoustic sector.

the sound's study

The Sound’s Study

In 2016, in Cremona, it was launched the course of music acoustics engineering that is about the processes involved in the birth, analysis, processing and use of the music sound. The two-years course is organized by Poly-technical University of Milan and it offers the possibility to attend at the same time the courses offered by the Department of Musicology of Pavia University (studies on the organ and restoration of music instruments). Moreover, in the Research Workshops at the Violin’s Museum it is active the Musical Acoustic Lab of Poly-technical University of Milan, that is about advanced research in vibrometric and acoustic sector.