Ezio Scarpini

He was born in Soncino, a village near Cremona, in 1954.

In 1973 he graduated from the International School of Violin-Making in Cremona. Later that year, he started working in the workshop of Master Bissolotti, where he built a few instruments. In that very workshop he became acquainted with Maestro Sacconi, who was in Cremona on the occasion of the publication of his book "The Secrets of Stradivari". In 1974-5 he served as a petty officer in the military marine force and in parallel worked in Rome in the workshop of Master Leonori, helping him complete a number of instruments that had remained unfinished due to the Master's advanced age. In 1976 he started teaching at the International School of Violin-Making and in 1982 he became a permanent teacher. Today he teaches construction of bowed and plucked instruments at the school. He achieved a distinguished level in, for example, the construction of lutes, the reconstruction of a harp/guitar, of two historical diatonic harps, the reconstruction of Medieval and Renaissance instruments, of guitars of historical importance (Jean Voboam 1680), and the restoration of a double-bass belonging to the city of Prato. For a while now he has been focusing on studying and building bowed instruments of the classical Cremonese violin-makers, documenting their forms and the construction styles in an archive. Many among his numerous students have won important violin-making competitions, and many have become successful teachers at the Cremonese School and worldwide.