Carlo Chiesa was born in 1962 in Milan, where he lives and works as violinmaker.
He started his musical studies as an organist, after his secondary-school diploma specialising in humanities; he studied history and philosophy at the "Cattolica" University in Milan. At the same time he attended the Violin - Making School in Milan, first under the guidance of Renato Scrollavezza and after of Luca Primon. He took his diploma in 1985 with full marks.
Since then he has embarked on a career of violin-maker, making new strings instruments in particular Baroque style (bass viol, violins etc.) and improving old instruments (making new settings), as well as making research works on different issues related to the history of Italian violin-makers and their technique. He is particularly devoted to the study of historical instruments and their identification.
As an expert in historic violin making he has been speaker in many conferences and symposia in Italy and abroad. He has been the editor of the catalogue for the exhibition dedicated to the violin-making of Cremona ...e furono liutai in Cremona, Cremona, 2000, and he was one of the member of the Scientific Committee in the same exhibition, of the exhibition of Montagnana instruments (Lendinara, 1997) and of the exhibition of violin-makers of Lombard region (Cremona 2002).
He has written and collaborated to many publications, among those the book co-written with Duane Rosengard The Stradivari Legacy - L’eredità di Stradivari (London 1998), the monumental research on the 25 Masterpieces by Guarneri del Gesù (London 1998) (co-author with Dilworth, Hargrave, Rosengard and Pollens), and the essay Il percorso liutario di GB Guadagnini (Borgonovo V.T. 2000).
Others essays can be found in: The Violin Masterpieces of Guarneri del Gesù (New York 1994), Joseph Guarnerius "del Gesù" (Catalogue of the exhibition, Cremona 1995), I centenari dei Guarneri (Catalogue of the exhibition, Cremona 1998), ...e furono liutai in Cremona (Catalogue of the exhibition, Cremona 2000), Gli Strumenti di Cremona (Cremona 2001).
We should mention among his studies Ricerche d’Archivio sui Liutai Milanesi (in "Liuteria, Musica, Cultura", 1993), Alcune notizie circa gli antichi liutai milanesi presenti nel Museo degli Strumenti Musicali (in "Rassegna di Studi e Notizie", 1995), Violin Making and Makers on the Contrada Larga in Milan (in "Journal of the Violin Society of America" vol XIV n. 3, 1996), Milanese Violin Makers (Minutes taken from Dartington Violin Conference, 1995), La Viola da Gamba in Cremona (Minutes taken from the Symposium in Magnano, 2000), and many others articles in "The Strad", "Newsletter of the British Violin Making Association", "Strings" and "FoMRHI Journal".
He writes and he is the editor of some items dedicated to the violin-making (Stradivari, Guarneri, Rugeri, Grancino, etc.) for the New Grove’s Dictionary of Violin and Violinists and for the current edition of MGG.
He collaborates with the Galleria dell’Accademia of Florence, with the Conservatory of Milan and Turin, with the Violin-Making School, with the English magazine "The Strad", with the publishing house Cremonabooks and with the Foundation "Il Canale".
Chiesa,Carlo
