OUR COMPETITION TEAM

Judge 2020 – 2023 and Chief Advisor 2020 –

Roberto Regazzi – Italy – http://www.regazzi.net

Roberto’s Bridges in the Archive

Roberto is  a notable contemporary violin maker and scholar who received his initiation in the craft from Otello Bignami. He is our Chief Judge and advisor to the competition.

The Regazzi Library is a large and valuable collection of books, articles and documents about musical instruments, considered a unique piece in the world.

He has been on the jury of a number of contests for luthiers, including the 10th International Competition of the Violin Society of America at Carlisle, Pennsylvania (1992), the Freiburg Baden-Wurttemberg Internationaler Geigenbauwettbewerb Jacobus Stainer (1996), the 5th Baveno Violin Making Competition, the 2nd Concourse in S.M. della neve of Pisogne and the prestigious 10th (2001) and 14th (2021, as a Chairman Jury Member) Henryk Wieniawski Violin-Making Competition, the oldest event of this kind in the world.

 

Michael Darnton – United States of America – https://darntonviolins.com/ Judge 2020 -2022

Michael’s Bridges in the Archive

Michael is a violin maker, restorer, writer and teacher who lives in Chicago, through his work with Bein and Fushi Rare violins has photographed thousands of great violins all over the world.

While finding repair and restoration to be interesting and invaluable training in tool skills, he was still most interested in making violins, and in 1988 moved  from Bein & Fushi to another shop in the same historic Chicago Fine Arts Building, the violin making workshop of William Harris Lee & Co. There he worked under Will Whedbee and Tetsuo Matsuda, two skilled and prolific contemporary American makers. Both were trained at the Cremona school.

He is a founding partner of Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins

 

Ewen Thompson N.S.V.M – Shetland – http://ewenthomsonviolinmaker.com/

Ewen’s Bridges in the Archive

Ewen is a highly respected musician and luthier, a  gradate of the Newark School of Violin Making with a global reputation for making high quality violins and violas.

His instruments are played by classical and traditional musicians alike around the world.

 

 

Ralph Plumb W.S.V.M – England – https://www.cellorepairs.co.uk/

Ralph began working with Violins in 1988, a graduate of the Welsh School of Violin Making who has acquired vast experience in some of the best workshops in the world. From Hong Kong to Cardiff and Bristol.

​He offers making and tonal adjustments of cellos, bass, violin and viola.

 

 

Gerard KilBride  N.S.V.M – Wales – https://gerardkilbride.com

Gerard’s Bridges in the Archive

Gerard is a musician, producer, creator, researcher, violin maker and restorer, a graduate of the Newark School of Violin Making. For the last 30 years he has worked behind the scenes as a restorer,  for many of the largest violin shops and dealers in the United Kingdom, specialising in the impossible and has cut well over a thousand Bridges.

He is the creator of the online website archive.violinbridges.co.uk a photographic archive of violin bridges, he is the founder and organiser of the International Violin Bridge Competition.

He lives and works in Mid East Wales where he makes music, restores, researches and makes unique bespoke violins.

gerardkilbride.com

violinbridges.co.uk

 

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