Carlo Chiesa

Liuteria

Carlo Chiesa

Carlo Chiesa was born in Milan in 1962. A maker of fine violins, violas, cellos and viols, he is also an expert in improving the sound of historical instruments fine tuning their setup in close collaboration with first class soloists and performers.

He made extensive historical researches on old makers in northern Italy and developed a deep knowledge of ancient instruments and is the curator of instruments for Fondazione pro Canale.

A member of the International Society of Violin and Bow Makers (EILA), Carlo has presented lectures in many international meetings of violin makers all over the world. He collaborated with many institutes, including Museo del Violino of Cremona, Galleria dell’Accademia of Florence, Ashmolean Museum of Oxford, Royal Academy of Music of London, La Sapienza University of Rome, Politecnico of Milan, Conservatorio of Milan, Turin, Como, and others.

He was the curator of important exhibitions and catalogues, such as …e furono liutai in Cremona, 2000, Il DNA degli Amati, 2006, Andrea Amati Opera Omnia, 2007, Bottega Italiana, 2013, all in Cremona, and Antonio Stradivari, 2003, in Stresa. A member of the scientific committee of many others exhibitions of historical instruments.

One of the authors of Guarneri del Gesù (London 1998), Carlo wrote together with Duane Rosengard The Stradivari Legacy (London 1998) and published some dozens essays and articles in books, catalogues of exhibitions and Journals and Magazines such as The Strad and VSA Journal.

He is the author/reviser of some entries (Stradivari, Guarneri, Rugeri, Grancino, Gasparo da Salò, ecc.) for the New Grove’s Dictionary of Violin and Violinists and for Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.

In 2014 he had the honour to be a member of the jury at the International Competition of the Violin Society of America in Indianapolis. In 2021 is a member of the jury of the International Violin Making Competition (“Triennale”) in Cremona.