‘Luthiers’ of the future: The school in Colombia that carves violins under the guidance of the Stradivari Institute

Ángel Antonio is 36 years old and obsessed with one question: who will make the violins of the future? In an industrialized world where sounds seem homogeneous, he wonders, who will carve the wood so that the music transcends? He asks this without taking his eyes off a violin while he finishes polishing it, after a class with a teacher from the ancient International School of Violin Making in Cremona, part of the Antonio Stradivari Institute of Higher Education.

He’s a violinist and a student of the visual arts. He says music and sculpture permeate him. For years, he searched for a way to merge those two passions and couldn’t find a place. He researched, waited, and persisted. Until a rarity, a miracle, he says, was established in a country as devastated as Colombia: the first Technology Program in the Construction and Repair of Bowed String Instruments at the Tolima Conservatory, in the city of Ibagué. In other words, the only lutherie school in Colombia and one of the few in Latin America, where students study tuition-free and learn under the guidelines of the legendary Cremona school.

That Italian city, the world’s birthplace of the violin and home to iconic luthiers like Amati, Guarneri del Gesù, and Stradivari, is one of the places that preserves the ancient tradition of lutherie. Thanks to the insistence and work of Julia and Víctor Salvi, their teachers now teach students in Ibagué. Not only that. With the help of the Salvi Foundation, five students are training at the Cremona school, the only recognized public institute in the world that grants the title of luthier.

Music in adverse contexts

The story began more than twenty years ago with a failed experiment, explains Julia Salvi, director of the Foundation that bears her and her husband Víctor’s surname. The musician and builder, known for revolutionizing harp lutherie with technological advances, new materials, and assembly techniques, attempted to build harps in Colombia and export them. But he encountered the reality of a country in conflict. “It was a time of heightened drug trafficking, and the harps we tried to export were destroyed because they were thought to contain drugs,” she says. Víctor knew the difficulties, but also the importance of making music in adverse circumstances. During World War II, he himself combined military service with music and managed to bring his instrument with him and play for the soldiers.

“We were left feeling sad from the initial experiment in Colombia, but we wanted to help musicians resolve the issue of the poor quality of their instruments,” Julia adds, as they discovered that “one of the biggest challenges in artistic expression was the instruments.” At that time, most were imported from China, but they weren’t always the best quality.

Thus, the opportunity to train Colombian makers themselves arose. They took the first steps together with the Santo Domingo Foundation and the Batuta program. They traveled to remote locations, carrying the “luthiers’ briefcase” to train instrument makers who, empirically, maintained local traditions. Salvi recalls the story of a dental technician who became his town’s luthier by pure chance, when one of his patients asked him to fix his son’s violin with his “apparatus.” “It was admirable that without having the tools, he understood how to solve problems. But that didn’t solve the basics, which was making the instrument sound good.”

Over the years, the Ministry of Culture became a key partner in institutionalizing the program hosted by the Tolima Conservatory. “The school was born out of the need for musicians to work with suitable tools for the talent that exists in the country,” says Diana Arévalo, program coordinator. “In the last 15 years, the State has provided nearly 25,000 instruments through the Music for Coexistence Plan, but musicians faced a lack of trained personnel to repair them,” she adds. That has been changing, as will be demonstrated during the Ibagué Festival, from September 4 to 7.

Students in the Conservatory program range in age from 16 to 67 and come from a variety of backgrounds, including music, cabinetmaking, and art. None pay to study there—what’s commonly referred to as zero tuition—and the only requirement for admission is a lack of a professional degree. After taking classes in Spanish and Italian, with support from the Italian Institute of Culture, the first six luthiers have already graduated.

Three of them will continue their studies for two more years at the Cremona School. “We’re the only ones in the world who have a direct partnership with them, and it’s a real honor,” adds Arévalo. With the support of the Salvi Foundation, the Conservatory prepares them to pass the Cremona high school exam, complete immigration procedures, and even earn a living in the European city. The requirement is that they return to teach others.

For musician Antonio Miscená, the program’s academic advisor and artistic director of the Cartagena Symphony Orchestra and the city’s International Music Festival, what has happened in Ibagué is a miracle. “Creating a culture, an environment, for lutherie is a challenge. Today, there is a small group of luthiers in Colombia who are more familiar with the possibilities of sound.” Julia Salvi goes even further in her dream. “I aspire and have faith that in Colombia we will achieve a Stradivarius. We have the school that gives us the opportunity to do it, the young people, and the free tuition and the opportunity to achieve it.”