Maker Background
Frédéric graduated from Cremona international violin making school in the year 1982 under the guidance of Master Francesco Bissolotti. He builds his instruments using the “closed box” antique
Cremonese system, originating from the fundamental work of Simone Sacconi “The secrets of Stradivari". Frédéric deepened this system by studying the work of Roger Hargrave and the original hypotheses of Euro Peluzzi. The result is a very personal construction technique, that continues to evolve over time.
I was born in the south of France into a family of carpenters for three generations. As far as I remember, I have always had a piece of wood in my hands. My grandfather guide me into the very first rudiments in wood working and I spent all my free time in building wood objects. Very soon I developed a strong passion for playing music too; my grandfather was an accordion player and my mother learnt piano in her young age, but in the sixty’s the guitar was the king of the instruments for a young man, so I chose to play it. I studied mathematics, physics, chemistry and technical drawing until I graduated. My road marked would have been engineering, but my natural confidence with woodworking and the passion for music led me to enter in 1978 the International Violin Making School in Cremona. I was lucky enough to attend school when its two most prestigious figures, masters Morassi and Bissolotti were still teaching; the comparison between "Morassians" and "Bissolottians" and the taste for experimentation provided me with a rigorous but open training. In 1982 I obtained the diploma of Master Luthier under the guidance of Francesco Bissolotti. I settled in Parma and immersed myself in an intense process of research and analysis of the minute criteria involved in each and every detail of the step-by-step violin construction process, from its initial design to its final varnishing. In Parma I met Maestro Renato Scrollavezza from which I received advices and encouragements, and in 1986 I started the luthier profession. I self-published in 2001 "the magical sound of the forest": artistic photographs illustrated with a poem and accompanied by a pedagogical text that explains the creative process behind the construction of stringed instruments. In 2008 I was involved in the most creative and artistic project I have made to date: the creation of “Ivan, the crazy violin”. (Ivan il pazzo) I participated in the exhibitions "Musicora" in Paris and "Mondomusica" in Cremona first individually then with "Officina Musicale" from 1986 to 2005. I was a member of the Liuteria Parmense Association, and a member of its board of directors until 2009. Since 2014 I have been teaching at the Renato Scrollavezza International School of violin making. I continue to study and do research every day, testing new insights and solutions on the workbench.
