All under one ROOF

Visitors peruse the stands at Cremona Musica 2018

Half a millennium has passed since the birth of Andrea Amati, the forefather of traditional Cremonese lutherie, and Cremona is more than ever the world capital of violin making. This city of just a little more than 70,000 inhabitants today hosts about 170 lutherie workshops. The violins crafted in these ateliers are still in great demand, as it was in the age of Stradivari and Guarneri ‘del Gesu’: musicians and collectors from all around the world come to Cremona to find the perfect instrument. These instruments are handmade masterpieces and are created in very small quantities, often on commission.

To promote the art and the work of these contemporary heirs of Stradivari, every year on the last weekend of September, Cremona hosts the most important exhibition of high-quality musical instruments, Cremona Musica. Organised by CremonaFiere, this event is growing year on year, and becoming more international. For three days (this year from 27 to 29 September), Cremonese luthiers move into the pavilions of the exhibition centre to showcase their instruments, often made specially for the event. Alongside them are the best international luthiers from around the world, as well as bow makers and accessories manufacturers. A great amount of knowledge and many ways of thinking come together in the halls of Cremona Musica, where visitors can feel both the power of tradition and the flow of innovation.

Since 2011 Cremona Musica has grown to incorporate spaces dedicated to other instruments. Alongside Mondomusica – the area devoted to stringed instruments and music publishing – the event includes the Piano Experience, the Acoustic Guitar Village, Cremona Winds, and the Accordion Show. In 2018 the fair hosted 320 exhibitors from 30 different countries, with 52 per cent of exhibitors coming from outside Italy. While there are separate spaces for different instruments, the format is always the same: the best makers, lots of events, and live music.

Indeed, Cremona Musica celebrates music by bringing it alive. Visitors will find almost 200 events, including historical exhibitions, conferences, book presentations, masterclasses, competitions, and of course many concerts. The concept of the fair has broadened, combining the business side and the artistic side of music. The Cremona Musica programme attracts a wide audience, made up of all those who love music: instrument makers, dealers, international buyers, professional musicians, but also amateurs, students, journalists, representatives of institutions such as theatres and schools, music lovers and the curious. This variety of audience is the real strong point of Cremona Musica: the presence of so many people involved in different aspects of music makes Cremona Musica an unmissable event, a crossroads that generates meetings and opportunities, where new ideas and projects are born. Cremona is where music lives and renews itself, and where the seeds for the future are sown.

’Cremona connects people who love music’ – Maxim Vengerov

Visitors to the 2018 edition probably still remember the music show devised and performed by the writer Alessandro Baricco (voice), Vladimir Mendelssohn (viola) and Maxim Vengerov (in the unusual role of triangle player). This was a great example of the creative energy and magic generated by a meeting of music lovers. And, as Vengerov said at Cremona Musica 2018, ‘Cremona connects people who love music.’

Many important artists are appearing at this year’s event, including violin legend Salvatore Accardo, the Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco Pena, clarinettist Richard Stoltzman, and the conductor and composer Ezio Bosso. Cremona Musica will also pay homage to Amnon Weinstein’s exhibition Violins of Hope, which collects stringed instruments that belonged to the victims of the Holocaust, showing the power of music. Some of the violins from the Violins of Hope exhibition will be played in concert and exhibited at Cremona Musica.

The above-mentioned artists will also receive the Cremona Musica Award, a prize that CremonaFiere gives to figures in the music world who have contributed to spreading the values of music. Accardo, Stoltzman and Pena will receive the award in the ‘performance’ category, Weinstein in the ‘project’ category, and Bosso in the ‘communication’ category. The prize’s hall of fame includes not just musicians, but also disseminators, writers, institutions and, of course, luthiers.

In the end, the true protagonists of Cremona Musica are the luthiers – the artisans who, with the knowledge passed from generation to generation, turn wood into masterpieces capable of reproducing the perfect sound, and which will be entrusted to great musicians, to be played in the most prestigious theatres in the world. This magic is renewed day by day, and reaches its peak in the streets of this Italian city of just 70,000 and in its great international exhibition. Thanks to these initiatives and to the many institutions, museums and teaching centres that operate in Cremona, the city is a point of reference for music lovers from all the world.