We are in Italy for a week, back in Como our lovely Lombardian city. This time it is so nice to have my parents also with us and like every other year we just decide every morning which city or town do we drive into and explore. Cremona kindled our interest because of several beautiful traditions associated with the place and especially because it was renowned as a center of musical instrument manufacture.
Cremona is where we met Carlos. Carlos is from Argentina originally, he is a violin and chello maker living in the beautiful city of Cremona. Carlos came to Cremona 25 years ago for a 2 week artisans course on restoring violins. But the 2 weeks turned into 25 years and now he is one of the luthiers making his living creating new violins and Chellos for musicians coming to this city from different parts of the world.
Carlos was kind enough to show us how he moulds the spruce wood into the desired shape. The wood used in making a violin is seasoned for many years. It was very clear that making a violin requires great patience and it was also obvious that Carlos had a lot of patience as he nicely explained all the details of the art to eager tourists like us. I just loved gazing at all the intricate instruments he used and was thinking about how he would have used those instruments to mould the instruments of musicians playing in different parts of the world.
He was happy to hear that we lived close to Heidelberg as his good friend Babette who also graduated from the university of Cremona is a renowned violin maker living in the beautiful town of Schwetzingen. We were delighted and though none of us are musicians or Violin players we decided to go visit Babette when we are back home on one of the weekends. Such a small world and you always end up making a connection which makes the place such a beautiful memory.
Next time I see somebody playing a violin or a chello I am sure to think about Cremona and ponder if the instrument was made in Cremona and if Carlos had a hand in it :-)
Cremona is where we met Carlos. Carlos is from Argentina originally, he is a violin and chello maker living in the beautiful city of Cremona. Carlos came to Cremona 25 years ago for a 2 week artisans course on restoring violins. But the 2 weeks turned into 25 years and now he is one of the luthiers making his living creating new violins and Chellos for musicians coming to this city from different parts of the world.
Carlos was kind enough to show us how he moulds the spruce wood into the desired shape. The wood used in making a violin is seasoned for many years. It was very clear that making a violin requires great patience and it was also obvious that Carlos had a lot of patience as he nicely explained all the details of the art to eager tourists like us. I just loved gazing at all the intricate instruments he used and was thinking about how he would have used those instruments to mould the instruments of musicians playing in different parts of the world.
He was happy to hear that we lived close to Heidelberg as his good friend Babette who also graduated from the university of Cremona is a renowned violin maker living in the beautiful town of Schwetzingen. We were delighted and though none of us are musicians or Violin players we decided to go visit Babette when we are back home on one of the weekends. Such a small world and you always end up making a connection which makes the place such a beautiful memory.
Next time I see somebody playing a violin or a chello I am sure to think about Cremona and ponder if the instrument was made in Cremona and if Carlos had a hand in it :-)
