Cremona violin-making tradition is made up of gestures, tools, skills and other small details. You can explain the history of this art but if you really want to learn it you must enter the violin-making workshops, speak to the violin-makers, touch the wood and discover every small secrets of this complex and wonderful art.

Cremona lives of this tradition which has never disappeared and which has never lost its ancient charm. The production and restoration of the violins, violas, cellos and counter-basses can be learnt and it can become a job for your entire life, a passion which remains in the people and in the life of the town.

Since 1938, in Cremona, the International School of Violin-making has been training extraordinary new artists from all over the world. At the end of the studies the training path goes on in a local workshop to learn the best tenchniques: a long-lasting and never-ending path of personal and professional growth. Every violin-maker makes from three to six instruments every year, assembling more than 70 wooden pieces around an inner mould, on the basis of the different acoustic performance of every single piece. Every violin is unique.  Every part of the instrument is made with a specific kind of wood, accurately selected and naturally well-aged.  This handicraft requires a high level of creativity which then allows to produce new wonderful instruments.

The violin-making tradition is fundamental for the identity of Cremona and it plays a fundamental role in the social and cultural activities of its citizens.

Ph. Salvo Liuzzi Photographer