Gianmaria Stelzer
I was born in Trento in 1986. After classical high school and cello studies, in 2007 I was admitted to the Civic School of Violin Making of the Municipality of Milan.
From 2009, in parallel with my second two-year period in Milan, I attended a violin making course held in Trento by Maestro Luca Primon, becoming his assistant in the meantime until 2012.
In 2010, I won a special prize at the 1st International Violin Making Competition in Pisogne (Brescia), with my first viola d’amore. In 2011, after graduating with top marks in Milan, I won a gold medal at the 5th National Competition in Pisogne, with a cello built jointly with my French colleague Jérémie Bonnet.
In 2012, I attended a course on the preparation of traditional oil varnishes for bowed instruments, held by the French expert François Perego; in the same year, I had a brief work experience in Antwerp with the violin maker Erik Buys, after which I decided to open my own business in Trento, mainly focusing on set-ups, repairs, restoration, and some construction.
Between April 2015 and August 2020, in London, I was a part-time assistant to the violin maker Philip Ihle, dividing my time for five years between Italy and England, between self-employment and employment, between maintenance and the construction of copies of great 18th-century Cremonese instruments. In December 2020, I won, with a violin and a viola, the 1st "I Suoni del Legno" violin making competition, organized by the Philharmonic Society of Trento, which purchased the instruments for its collection.
In September 2021, I opened my new workshop in Zurich (Switzerland), where I mainly focus on construction and offer setup services on high-quality instruments. In the summer of 2022, I participated for the first time in the Oberlin (USA) and Brandenburg (Germany) international violin making workshops.
In October 2022, I was a finalist in the Mittenwald (Germany) violin making competition with a violin built jointly with my friend and colleague Adam Winskill.
In November 2022, I received a Certificate of Merit for a violin, ranking 9th out of 180, at the Violin Society of America violin making competition. In July 2024, the "Anima" quartet, built with soundboards made from the trunk of the "Avez del Prinzep" (Prince's Fir) of Lavarone, debuted in the homonymous traveling show conceived by Maestro Giovanni Costantini.
