Biography

Sebastiano Ferrari started violin making in 2009, he began his studies at the Milan Violin Making School. He graduated with honour under the guidance of Paola Vecchio, Gabriele Negri, Lorenzo Rossi and Professor Claudio Canevari. During the last year of school he did an internship in a violin maker workshop.

Thanks to Professor Claudio Canevari he had the opportunity to collaborate on several projects in collaboration with the Arvedi Laboratory in the University of Pavia and Violin Museum of Cremona (https://www.museodelviolino.org/).

In 2014 he won a scholarship, awarded by the Cologni Foundation for Art and Crafts, for a collaborative project with the Scientific Laboratories of the Violin Museum of Cremona.

Since 2016 he teaches in the Violin Making School of Milan, managing the construction and varnishing classes.

Since 2022 he teaches in the Violin Making School of Turin, managing the construction and varnishing classes.

Projects

Collaboration on the project, conducted by the Arvedi Research Laboratory hosted by University of Pavia, for materials classification used in linings and filling of Neapolitan mandolins from half of eighteenth century. Photos of analysis and samples withdrawals for subsequent analysis with electron microscopy and spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), micro-fluorescence (Microft-IR) and stratigraphy.

(Pavia 2013)

Collaboration on the project, conducted by Polytechnic University of Milan, hosted in Violin Museum of Cremona: investigation and ontologies studies for classification of sound.

(Cremona 2014)

Collaboration on the project, conducted by Polytechnic University of Milan and Arvedi Research Laboratory, hosted in Violin Museum of Cremona: looking for correlations between the structural elements of the violin with the timbre and acoustic of the instrument.

(Cremona 2014)

Workshops

Acoustic measurement in workshop; measurement of violin sound spectrum; fingerboard, tailpiece and bridge intonation; diagnosis problems and instrument characterization through rigidity and weight.

Relator: George Stoppani.

(Cremona 2013)

The strings influence in bow instruments.

Relator: Franz Klanner (Thomastik-Infeld technician)

(Cremona 2013)

Varnish studies in historical Italian bow instruments; macro and microscopic analysis on wood samples at different stages of varnishing.

Relator: Brigitte Brandmair, curator of “Stradivari Varnish” book.

(Cremona 2013)

“Knowledge for conservation”. International science workshop on bow musical instruments.

Relators:

•Marco Malagodi: University of Pavia, Arvedi Research Laboratory, scientific consultant.

•Claudio Canevari: University of Pavia, Arvedi Research Laboratory, scientific consultant, Violin Making school of Milan.

•Augusto Sarti: teacher of electronics and information department of Polytechnic University of Milan.

•Gianni Ferretti: Vice rector of Polo territoriale di Cremona, Polytechnic University of Milan.

•Mats Tinnsten: Mid-Sweden University.

•Enrico Ravina: University of Genoa.

•Jean Philippe Echad: Researcher in the restoration laboratory of Museum of Music in Paris

•Jayson Dobney: musical Instruments curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

•Frank P. Bar: Director of instrument collection in the Nuremberg Musical Instrument Museum.

•Arian Sheets: Curator of stringed instruments collection in the National Museum of Music (University of South Dakota)

(Cremona 2013)

Violas of Antonio Stradivari at Museo del Violino

Relators:Bruno Giuranna and Bruce Carlson.

(Cremona 2015)

Instruments by Guarneri del Gesu at Museo del Violino.

Relator: Gregg Alf

(Cremona 2015)

Instruments of Giovanni Battista Guadagnini at Museo del Violino.

Relator: Eric Blot

(Cremona 2015)

Varnishes varnishes

Relator: Carlo Chiesa

(Cremona 2016)

Violin arching design and construction method by Robert Zuger.

Relator: Robert Zuger

(Cremona 2017)

A convergence of signal processing, AI and computational acoustics in support of the Cremonese community of violin makers

Relator: Augusto Sarti & Fabio Antonacci

(Cremona 2020)

Basic violin acoustics

Relator: Claudia Fritz

(Oberlin 2020)

Basic of modal testing and analysis

Relator: Claudia Fritz

(Oberlin 2020)

Basic of modal testing and analysis

Relator: Colin Gouch

(Birmingham 2020)

Tonewoods - at the crossroads between wood physics and craftsmanship knowledge

Relator: Iris Brémaud

(Montpellier 2020)

A basic introduction to chemistry for violin makers

Relator: George Stoppani

(Sorbonne University 2020)

History of varnishes

Relator: Jean-Philippe Echard

(Sorbonne University 2020)

Exploring the perception of violin qualities

Relator: Lei Fu

(Sorbonne University 2020)

Directivity analysis of the historical Cremonese violins

Relator: Mirco Pezzoli

(Cremona 2020)

The interplay of violin wood and its varnish

Relator: Sarah Lämmlein

(Sorbonne University 2020)

Violin shape optimisation with FEM and AI

Relator: Sebastian Gonzalez

(Cremona 2020)

Solving the Stradivarius Secret

Relator: William F. Jack Fry and Rose Mary Harbison

(Cremona 2020)