biography

Elisabetta Giordano was born in Cremona in 1971. Her interest in art history and her passion for artistic endeavors – especially drawing, sculpting and painting – alongside her love for music and woodworking, inevitably lead her, after graduating from high school, to enroll in the “Antonio Stradivari” International School of Violinmaking in Cremona, from which she graduated with merit in 1991.

Between 1989 and 1990 she attended, with excellent results, a training course on classical guitar making, held in Cremona by Maestro Claudio Poli.

In the following years she perfected her knowledge of string instrument making, furthering her studies of instrument making, restoration, acoustics and tuning.

Her career path experienced an intense shift between 2015 and 2017: during these years, Elisabetta Giordano had the opportunity to closely study some of the best Cremonese classical instruments by Stradivari, Guarneri del Gesù, Antonio and Gerolamo Amati, Nicolò Amati, Carlo Bergonzi, Lorenzo Storioni, as well as instruments by other well-known Italian masters such as Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (Piacenza, Milan, Parma, Turin), Raffaele Gagliano (Naples), Domenico Montagnana (Venice), Matteo Goffriller (Venice), Marino Capicchioni (Rimini) and many others.

She also diligently frequented the Cremona Violin Museum, wherein she enriched her knowledge through the study of the numerous masterpieces on display, particularly violins by Antonio Stradivari. She would also compare them with pieces from the Stradivari workshop artefacts collection, so as to fully assimilate the classical method through a rigorous research of harmony within their lines.

Her favorite motto? When it comes to instrument making, harmony is not the result of measurements: harmony itself dictates proportions, and therefore measurements.

Her studies focus on classical Cremonese violin making. She diligently employs each phase of the traditional method: this applies to a careful and rigorous selection of wood, to the choice of a walnut wood inner form, to the bending of the ribs , to the shaping of the arching, to the threading, to the assembly and to the varnishing of the instrument, which features a fully handmade varnish, as well as natural resins of the highest quality.

During the last two years, the number of tools in her workshop has drastically decreased, in search of a synthesis which could create a perfect balance between technique and personality, between the choice of model and recognisability of the maker. It is crucial to her that the method is carried out in full respect of the Cremonese tradition, while also maintaining the personality and character of the maker, whose priority should be to interpret the work of the great masters, not just copy it. All her work is carried out exclusively by hand: a labor of love, since Elisabetta Giordano loves her craft and is by now a Master Violinmaker. Her craftsmanship is well-known all over the world through her instruments – more than 150 violins, violas and cellos.

Extremely demanding and determined in her work, gifted with great artistic sensitivity, aesthetic taste, talent and manual ability, Elisabetta Giordano has come to be appreciated, in the last twenty years, by international musicians for the beauty of her instruments, and above all for their peculiar acoustic qualities.

Particularly by musicians from the following orchestras: Teatro alla Scala, I pomeriggi Musicali, Sinfonica della Rai and Sinfonica LaVerdi in Milan, Sinfonica della Rai and Teatro Regio in Turin, Arturo Toscanini and Teatro Regio in Parma, Arena di Verona, Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Sinfonica in Cagliari, Sinfonica della Valle d’Aosta, Filarmonica Italiana in Piacenza, Filarmonica Marchigiana in Ancona, Giovanile Italiana in Fiesole, Cameristica in Engelberg, OSI in Lugano.

Her instruments are wellknown and appreciated in various European countries such as Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, England, Belgium, as well as in the United States, in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and Singapore.