Borja Bernabeu
1971, Madrid, Spain
I was bom in Madrid in 1971. Alter finishing high school in Madrid I enrolled at the University of Saint Louis in Missouri (U.S.), and graduated in 1994 with Bachelor of Science degree in business administration. Upon completing my university studies my love for music and woodworking drove me to focus on my true passion: building and restoring stringed musical instruments. In 1997 1 received a diploma from the Red Wing Technical College in Minnesota for Guitar repair and building. In the followingyear I moved to Schio, Vicenza in Italy.There I worked for Manne Guitars where I repaired and built guitars. In 1998, I moved to Cremona to study at the Antonio Stradivarius School of Violin Making of Cremona. I learned building and restoration mainly from maestro Lorenzo Marchi. In the year 2001 I graduated from the Violin Making School in Cremona earning the Violin Maker diploma. Immediately after graduating I did some training in the shop of Silvio Levaggi. In 2002 1 worked for a short period in the shop of Alberto Giordano in Genoa.
My instruments are played woddwide by well known professional musicians that appreciate the acoustic quality, the exceptional workmanship, the selective choice of well seasoned woods and the depth and warm beauty of the oil vamishes achieved through the study of materials, old recipes and research on the subject.
I have the honour of being one the few living violin makers that is represented at the Stradivarian museum which exhibits a a collection of tools, forms, templates and manuscripts once owned by Stradivari, as well as a selection of Italian historical instruments. In 2001, in a project involving the school, the City Council of Cremona and the Stradivarian museum, I built a reconstruction of an original mandolin by Antonio Stradivari. This instrument is on the permanent exhibition of the museum.
I build violins, violas and cellos. My work is inspired by the old classic instruments of the Cremonese tradition, from makers like Stradivad, Guameri and Amati, and interpreted with my own personal style. I am not really a prolific maker as I prefer to build a very limited number of instruments a year so I can focus on quality of sound and workmanship.
I am a member of the Violin makers Consortium of Cremona "Antonio Stradivari" and of the Violin Society of America. I have participated with big success in different intemational violin making competitions. In 2006, I have won two silver medals for Violin and viola workmanship at the Seventeenth International competition of the Violin Society of America.
services
| makes | instruments vln, vla, vlc |
| restores | instruments vln, vla, vlc |
| address | via dei Doviziosi 2/b - 26100 - Cremona (CR) - Italy |
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