Dear Maestros,
It is with great pleasure and pride that we announce the 15° edition of our prestigious International “Triennale” Violin Making Competition, organized by Museo del Violino. The Competition will take place next year in Cremona, the city where the violinmaking know how, acknowledged by UNESCO, flourishes and renovates itself.
The International “Triennale”, in fact, perfectly fits in the pathway that, as a system, we are following together with all the entities operating in the violinmaking world. In the course of this year the Cultural District for Violinmaking has been founded: this is the place where knowledge and innovation support and increase the cultural level of Cremonese violinmaking, a unique system in the world, open to the international community, an habitat capable of strengthening violinmaking even at a time of strong competition.
As protagonists and enthusiasts of this new ferment, which relaunch and support our violinmaking, we disclose the next Triennale which, particularly in the recent editions, has proved itself as the most important violinmaking competition in the world, so to really deserve the nickname of “Olympics of violinmaking”.
The “Sistema Cremona”, also in 2018, will select excellent instruments deserving to enter the prestigious International Contemporary Collection, hosted under the same roof of the Museo del Violino, leading element of our system, which preserves, studies and promotes the great jewels of Cremona’s glorious past. The Jury, again and specifically for the next edition, has been chosen to be of high international standard and
will work with great consideration and seriousness to really select the excellency.
We also decided to appoint as President of the Jury a Cremonese person, a big expert of the our reality: Dr. Renzo Rebecchi, former General Director of our Municipality and former President of the Community Foundation, a man of great culture, passionate servant of our community and with great management and directorial experience. We warmly invite all of you to enroll in high number in this great occasion for confrontation and challenge, but, even more a growth opportunity for the entire violinmaking community, both Cremonese and international.

Gianluca Galimberti
Mayor of Cremona – President of Fondazione Museo del Violino Antonio Stradivari 

1 The purpose of the 15th International “Triennale” Violin Making Competition Antonio Stradivari is to compare the standards of contemporary stringed instrument making worldwide and to highlight its best results in a fitting context. The competition will take place in the town of Cremona and will be divided into the following categories:

a) violin
b) viola
c) cello
d) double bass

Once the jury has completed its deliberations, the instruments will be exhibited to the public in accordance with the jury’s irrevocable decisions. The exhibition of the instruments will take place in Cremona, Museo del Violino, Piazza Marconi 5, from September 27th to October 14th, 2018. During this period it will not be possible to withdraw nor replace the instruments.

2 Any full-time professional stringed instrument maker, whether self-employed or not, may participate in the Competition, with no limitation as to nationality, sex or age. Those related by family ties, up to the fourth degree, to any member of the jury and anyone who has been employed by one of those members during the last two years are excluded. The fully completed application:
1) must be sent no later than 30/04/2018 (in accordance with the postmark);
2) must be submitted using the attached form or downloading it from the website
www.museodelviolino.org
3) must be completed, signed and dated.
The application can also be sent by email at the following address: triennale@museodelviolino.org or can be completed directly on the specific page on the website www.museodelviolino.org

An uncomplete application can be rejected.
Submission of an application implies acceptance of all regulations relating to this Competition. The application must also include the following:
– the VAT registration number for residents of the European Union (residents in Italy may submit their Chamber of Commerce registration number);
– for those residents in non-EU countries and for those who do not have a VAT registration number, comparable documentation as prescribed by law in their countries of residence or a reliable declaration that the applicant in question is a professional maker of stringed instruments, whether self-employed or not.
If in subordinate employment, the maker must enclose a declaration to this effect from his/her employer.
The Foundation reserves the right in every case to verify all declarations and exclude applicants as appropriate. Any irregularity regarding the declared professional position of the applicant, beside determining the exclusion from the Competition, will be reported to the competent Authority.

3 Each application must include an attached copy proving payment of the admission fee of € 170.00, excluding any bank charges, which is valid for the presentation of one instrument only; this fee includes one copy of the catalogue of the exhibit. € 100.00, excluding any bank charges, must be paid for a second instrument, if presented.
Payment may be effected by bank transfer or Paypal online payment system, available on the Foundation website www.museodelviolino.org.
The admission fee will not be reimbursed if the applicant decides not to participate to the Competition after the application has been accepted by the Organization. Incomplete applications will not be considered, nor will they be returned to the applicant.
Payments by bank transfer are to be made to:
BANCA POPOLARE DI CREMONA Cremona
Fondazione Museo del Violino Antonio Stradivari:
IBAN IT24I0503411401000000004850
SWIFT Code BAPPIT21V23

4 Each contestant may submit no more than two instruments in total and no more than one instrument per category. The instruments presented must have been made in or after 2015. The gold medal winners in previous editions of the Competition cannot enter in the same category.

5 The jury will not admit instruments to the Competition that:
1) have already won awards in either national or international competitions;
2) have been machine-made or varnished by spraying apparatus;
3) break with tradition by virtue of their particular form, decoration, colour or woods;
4) constitute imitations of instruments with artificial antiquing of the wood and varnish;
5) display abnormal dimensions. To this effect it has been determined that violas must have a body length between 400 and 420 mm and double basses must have a string length between 1040 and 1100 mm
6) are unanimously considered by the jury, with their reasons justified in writing, to be incompatible with the level of the Competition.
The maker may set up the instrument with the strings he considers most appropriate. Double basses will be set up with orchestra type strings.
The works presented in the Competition must be submitted absolutely anonymously. Each instrument and relative case or shipping crate must be devoid of any signs or elements which could identify the maker. Labels, brands, stamps or monograms of any sort must not be present on the visible surfaces, internal or external, of the instrument, even if they are covered. Should an instrument be presented with any such identification, it will be excluded from the Competition.

6 No later than the end of June 2018, the Organisation will communicate to the contestant if he/she has been admitted to the competition and will ask for further information if necessary.
At the same time the Organisation will supply each contestant with two envelopes, marked “A” and “B”, as well as a tag for each instrument presented and shipping instructions for the instruments.
The envelope marked “A”, to be closed and sealed, must contain the following:
1) First name, surname, date and place of birth, nationality and complete address of the maker, as well as the date and place of construction of the instrument;
2) A brief curriculum vitae and two photographs in colour of the contestant;
3) Two 10×15 cm complete view photographs in colour of the instrument presented, displaying the belly and the back;
4) A signed declaration by the maker which authorises the Organisation to:
– have any minor repair work necessary carried out by a master stringed instrument maker appointed by the Organisation for that purpose;
– reproduce and publish the photographs of the maker and the instrument in question;
– publish the complete results of the competition in prints or through the Organization website.
The envelope marked “B” will remain unsealed and must contain a set of extra strings identical to those on the instrument. A motto or single word in Roman capital letters must be present on both envelopes in the designated space. This same motto or word must be reproduced, with the same character or font, on the special tag which is to be tied to the scroll of the instrument.
Each instrument must have a different motto or word.

7 The instruments must be delivered to the Museo del Violino, Piazza Marconi 5, during the following days and times:
Friday September 7th and Saturday September 8th from 9am to 1pm,
Sunday September 9th from 9am to 6pm.
The instruments must be delivered either by a proxy of the maker, with the proxy appearing as the sender, or by a forwarding agency entrusted with the shipment. Upon receipt, each instrument will be examined in the presence of the deliverer in order to ascertain its condition. To this effect, a form will be filled out and signed by the personnel of the reception office and the deliverer of the instrument. This form will include the date and time of delivery, and the wording “ORIGINALE”.
Should an instrument be presented by a forwarding agent, the relative packing cases will be opened subsequently in the presence of three experts appointed for this task by the Organisation.
The above-mentioned form must be kept until the instrument is collected. The restitution of this form liberates the Organisation from any legal responsibility whatsoever.

8 The international jury will be composed by the President, five master violinmakers and five musicians, as specified below:
President: Dr. Renzo Rebecchi (Italy)
Luthiers: Alberto Giordano (Italy), Marco Nolli (Italy), Jan Strick (Belgium), Guy Rabut (USA), Zheng Quan (China)
Musicians: Glauco Bertagnin (Italy) violin, Enrico Fagone (Italy) doublebass, Jana Kuss (Germania) violin, Michel Michalakakos (Greece) viola, David Pia (Svizzera) cello.
All decisions of the jury are final. The President will organize and lead the works of the jury, but does not participate in scoring the instruments.
The contestants will be promptly notified of any changes that the Organisation may make in the composition of the jury.

9 Before the jury begins deliberation, the Organisation will cover the tag bearing the motto with an opaque, sealed envelope. Each envelope will bear a progressive number that will determine the order of selection. An initial selection will then be made to disqualify the instruments which do not conform to the preceding articles of the present rules and regulations.
Within the jury, stringed instrument makers and musicians will work in two separate groups.
For artistic/constructional qualities, luthiers may assign up to 500 points (100 points per juror). The instruments that will not reach the minimum score of 300 points for artistic/constructional qualities will not be submitted to the acoustic assessment; however, they may be exhibited and published on the competition catalogue, in the sole and exclusive judgment of the jury.
For acoustic qualities, musicians may assign a maximum of 400 points (80 points per juror). The evaluation of playability will be expressed only by the musician who performs the instrument during the acoustic test and acknowledged by the other musicians of the jury.
Each mark – from 1 to 10 for luthiers and from 1 to 8 for musicians – will be multiplied by the following coefficients:

1) Artistic/constructional qualities:
a) Technical level of work 26% coeff. of 2.6
b) Set up 21% coeff. of 2.1
c) Quality of varnish 22% coeff. of 2.2
d) Overall style and character 31% coeff. of 3.1

2) Acoustic characteristics:
a) Quality of timbre 35% coeff. of 3.5
b) Strength of tone 25% coeff. of 2.5
c) Balance between strings 20% coeff. of 2.0
d) Playability 20% coeff. of 2.0

The total number of points will determine the order of merit. The instruments which the jury considers eligible in accordance with their score will take part in the final acoustic test, which will be open to the public, during which the instruments will be played both unaccompanied and with piano accompaniment. Each juror will assign up to 10 points and thus the jury as a whole will be able to allocate a total of 100 points to the instruments examined. The total number of points calculated by adding up the points gained by each instrument in the final and the preceding tests will determine the winners of the Competition, the second and third prizes and the honourable mentions. The list of the instruments admitted to the final acoustic test will be published in due time on the Organization website, listing the motto of each instrument. The President of the Jury will be responsible for this operation, while the tags with the motto will remain covered until the end of the Competition.

10 The International Competition Antonio Stradivari offers four indivisible purchase prizes:

– for the best violin: gold medal, honours certificate, and purchase of the instrument by Foundation for € 16,000.00;
– for the best viola: gold medal, honours certificate, and purchase of the instrument by the Foundation for € 16,000.00;
– for the best violoncello: gold medal, honours certificate, and purchase of the instrument by the Foundation for € 24,000.00;
– for the best double bass: gold medal, honours certificate, and purchase of the instrument by the Foundation for € 24,000.00;
To this effect, please note that the purchase prizes are inclusive of VAT according to European tax laws and inclusive of Customs duties for non-EU countries.
• Four silver medals and a prize of € 2,000.00 each for those classified second in each of the four categories (violin, viola, violoncello, double bass).
• Four bronze medals and a prize of € 1,000.00 each for those classified third in each of the four categories (violin, viola, violoncello, double bass).
• The Jury could award certificates with honourable mention to finalists in each of the four categories (violin, viola, cello, double bass).
Prizes for second and third place are kindly offered by the Chamber of Commerce – Cremona.
– The Municipality of Cremona will award the “Simone Fernando Sacconi” prize, consisting of a gold medal, to the contestant under 30 years of age on 31/12/2018 who, according to the irrevocable decision of the jury, is considered the most deserving.
– The “Walter Stauffer” Centre of Musicology will award a gold medal to the contestant who has presented the best instrument from an acoustic point of view.
– “Pierangelo Balzarini” award (private): gold medal to the Cremonese maker who has reached the highest score in one of the four categories for artistic/constructional qualities.
– A.L.I. award (offered by Associazione Liutaria Italiana): silver plate to be given to an Italian maker not classified among the first three of any category, for an instrument with peculiar personality within the Italian tradition and culture.
– “Prize “Cremona Mondomusica” (offered by CremonaFiere) consisting of a stand in Cremona Mondomusica 2019 for each of the contestants, for the gold medals winner.
– The Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte will award a prize of € 1,000.00 to the best classified foreign violin maker, regularly working in Italy.
– “Giorgio Cè” award (private): prize of € 1,000.00 to the Cremonese violinmaker with the best instruments as far as varnish is concerned.

All contestants admitted to the competition will receive a certificate of participation. A complete colour catalogue of the instruments admitted will be published by the Organisation. A copy of the catalogue will be given to all the violinmakers enrolled in the Competition without further charge.
The instruments which win their respective categories in the Triennial Competition are put on permanent display to the public in the specific collection on the premises of the Foundation in Cremona, and may, at the discretion of the Foundation, be temporarily entrusted to musicians for closer appreciation.

11 Once the jury has finalized its decisions with regard to the placement of the competing entries, the envelopes containing the names of the contestants will be opened and the results of the Competition will be published within three days. Each contestant will receive a card with the marks allocated.
All the marks will be published on the website of the Foundation. The envelopes relative to the instruments which were not admitted to the Competition will remain sealed until the results of the Competition have been published. On Thursday, September 27th the jury members will meet the competitors who desire a confrontation, at a time to be communicated before the end of the competition.

12 The award ceremony will take place on Wednesday, September 26th at the Amilcare Ponchielli theatre at 8.30 p.m. before the winner instruments concert.

13 After the closure of the Exhibition, the instruments, the spare strings and the remaining documentation contained in the envelope marked “A” may be retrieved by those presenting the consignment receipt marked “ORIGINALE”. All instruments must be collected within 3 days of the closure of the Exhibition. Any instruments not collected in time will be stored on the Organisation’s premises.

14 The Organisation will insure the instruments against the risks of fire, theft and accidental damage.
Conventionally, the insured values are as follows:
1. € 8,000.00 for each violin
2. € 10,000.00 for each viola
3. € 15,000.00 for each violoncello and double bass.
The insurance coverage is valid from the moment the instrument is delivered to the reception office until the time of withdrawal or when instruments not retrieved are deposited on the Organisation’s premises as specified in Art. 12.

15 In the event of any controversy arising from the interpretation or the application of the above Regulations, the only court having jurisdiction will be that of Cremona.

16 The English translation of these Regulations is solely for the convenience of the contestants. In the event of controversial interpretation, only the Italian text will be considered valid.

Any requests for information or other correspondence should be addressed to:
FONDAZIONE MUSEO DEL VIOLINO
ANTONIO STRADIVARI CREMONA
PIAZZA MARCONI, 5
Tel. +39-0372-801801
Fax +39-0372-801888
triennale@museodelviolino.org
www.museodelviolino.org

 Presidente: Dr. Renzo Rebecchi (Italia)

Liutai
Alberto Giordano (Italia)
Marco Nolli (Italia)
Jan Strick (Belgio)
Guy Rabut (USA)
Zheng Quan (Cina)

Musicisti
Glauco Bertagnin (Italia) violino
Enrico Fagone (Italia) contrabbasso
Jana Kuss (Germania) violino
Michel Michalakakos (Grecia) viola
David Pia (Svizzera) violoncello

The International Competition Antonio Stradivari offers four indivisible purchase prizes:

– for the best violin: gold medal, honours certificate, and purchase of the instrument by Foundation for € 16,000.00;
– for the best viola: gold medal, honours certificate, and purchase of the instrument by the Foundation for € 16,000.00;
– for the best violoncello: gold medal, honours certificate, and purchase of the instrument by the Foundation for € 24,000.00;
– for the best double bass: gold medal, honours certificate, and purchase of the instrument by the Foundation for € 24,000.00;
To this effect, please note that the purchase prizes are inclusive of VAT according to European tax laws and inclusive of Customs duties for non-EU countries.
• Four silver medals and a prize of € 2,000.00 each for those classified second in each of the four categories (violin, viola, violoncello, double bass).
• Four bronze medals and a prize of € 1,000.00 each for those classified third in each of the four categories (violin, viola, violoncello, double bass).
• The Jury could award certificates with honourable mention to finalists in each of the four categories (violin, viola, cello, double bass).
Prizes for second and third place are kindly offered by the Chamber of Commerce – Cremona.
– The Municipality of Cremona will award the “Simone Fernando Sacconi” prize, consisting of a gold medal, to the contestant under 30 years of age on 31/12/2018 who, according to the irrevocable decision of the jury, is considered the most deserving.
– The “Walter Stauffer” Centre of Musicology will award a gold medal to the contestant who has presented the best instrument from an acoustic point of view.
– “Pierangelo Balzarini” award (private): gold medal to the Cremonese maker who has reached the highest score in one of the four categories for artistic/constructional qualities.
– A.L.I. award (offered by Associazione Liutaria Italiana): silver plate to be given to an Italian maker not classified among the first three of any category, for an instrument with peculiar personality within the Italian tradition and culture.
– “Prize “Cremona Mondomusica” (offered by CremonaFiere) consisting of a stand in Cremona Mondomusica 2019 for each of the contestants, for the gold medals winner.
– The Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte will award a prize of € 1,000.00 to the best classified foreign violin maker, regularly working in Italy.
– “Giorgio Cè” award (private): prize of € 1,000.00 to the Cremonese violinmaker with the best instruments as far as varnish is concerned.

All contestants admitted to the competition will receive a certificate of participation. A complete colour catalogue of the instruments admitted will be published by the Organisation. A copy of the catalogue will be given to all the violinmakers enrolled in the Competition without further charge.
The instruments which win their respective categories in the Triennial Competition are put on permanent display to the public in the specific collection on the premises of the Foundation in Cremona, and may, at the discretion of the Foundation, be temporarily entrusted to musicians for closer appreciation.

I Triennale 1976
violino – Giorgio Ce’ (Italia)
viola – Piero Badalassi (Italia)
violoncello – Erminio Malagutti (Italia)

II Triennale 1979
violino – Augustin Andreas (Germania)
viola – Alexander Muradov – U.R.S.S.
violoncello – Roger Graham Hargrave (Gran Bretagna)

III Triennale 1982
violino – Sonoda Nobuhiro (Giappone/Germania)
viola – David Burgess (Stati Uniti)

IV Triennale 1985
violino – David Gusset (Stati Uniti)
viola – Nicola Lazzari (Italia)
violoncello – Primo Pistoni (Italia)

V Triennale 1988
violino – Marcello Ive (Italia)
viola – Dante Fulvio Lazzari (Italia)
violoncello – Pierangelo Balzarini (Italia)
contrabbasso – Marco Nolli (Italia)

VI Triennale 1991
violino – Luca Sbernini (Italia)
violoncello – Luca Sbernini (Italia)

VII Triennale 1994
violino – Helmut Muller (Germania)
violoncello – Alessandro Voltini (Italia)

VIII Triennale 1997
violino – Primo Pistoni (Italia)
viola – Christopher Rowe (Gran Bretagna)

IX Triennale 2000
violino – Kolja Jens Lochmann (Germania)
viola – Marcus Klimke (Germania)
violoncello – Kolja Jens Lochmann (Germania)

X Triennale 2003
violino – Jan Baptista Špidlen (Repubblica Ceca)
violoncello – Raymond Schryer (Canada)

XI Triennale 2006 violoncello
Francesco Toto (Italia)

XII Triennale 2009
violino – Marko Pennanen (Finlandia)
viola – Antoine Cauche (Francia)
violoncello – Silvio Levaggi (Italia)

XIII Triennale 2012
violino – Ulrich Hinsberger (Germania)
viola – Ulrike Dederer(Germania/Svizzera)
contrabbasso – Marco Nolli (Italia)

XIV Triennale 2015
viola – Charles Coquet (Francia)