Roberto Regazzi

Roberto Regazzi (born 20 August 1956 in Bologna, Italy) is a notable contemporary violin maker and scholar who received his initiation in the craft from Otello Bignami. Regazzi lives and works in Bologna.

Biography Regazzi's debut was at an early age. When he was 14 years old, he became involved in the construction of musical instruments, at that time mostly classical guitars, under the guidance of Alan Wilcox and Renato Scrollavezza in the mid 1970s.

Later, the possibility to become a home pupil of Otello Bignami was crucial for his decision to stop the studies at the Bologna University (Physics) to become a professional violin maker.

Established and well known worldwide for the high quality of his instruments, he has been president of a number of specialized organizations including the European Association of Violin and Bow Makers.

His violins are clear examples of the Italianate sound.

Just before the advent of the new millennium, his production started to be inspired by Guarneri del Gesù, with the achievement of a rich and full sonority. His work is also inspired by Giuseppe Fiorini, Ansaldo Poggi and Augusto Pollastri (modern Bolognese School).

In 2006 the Chamber of Commerce of Bologna conferred on him an honour in recognition of his work. In 2018 the Fondazione Cologni wanted to have him in the Golden Book of the MAM (Maestro d'Arte e Mestiere), a sort of Grammy Award for handicraft activities.

Many are the performers and musicians who have bought and play or have ordered his instruments, including Boris Belkin, Franco Mezzena, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Ruggiero Ricci, Salvatore Greco, Giovanni Adamo, Uto Ughi, Franco Gulli, Anastasiya Petryshak, Sonia Slany, Riccardo Brengola, the Quartetto di Venezia, Igor Ozim, Peter Fisher and many others.

The Regazzi Library is a large 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-Württemberg 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.

He also made several classical concert guitars starting in the 1970s, up to the end of the 1980s, mostly made out of top selected quality Brazilian rosewood and quite special western red cedar and Italian or American spruce.

Every instrument is labelled and branded with iron from the beginning of his artistic career.

He has written books, lectured around the world and organised cultural events relating to his art and profession.

Regazzi is the first luthier from Bologna having been chosen as an official testimonial for the Craft of Traditional Musical Instrument Making at the Bologna Shanghai 2010 Expo.

In the same period he was also the creator and developer of the wiihang, a kind of prepared handpan which uses the infrared technology to be coupled with a specially adapted synthesizer.

Publications In occasione del 250º anniversario della morte di Antonio Stradivari per onorare la figura di Giuseppe Fiorini, Bazzano, 1987 In remembrance of Ansaldo Poggi, Bologna, Florenus 1994 The Complete Luthier's Library, Bologna, Florenus 1990 The Manuscript on Violin Making by G.A. Marchi - Bologna 1786, Bologna, Arnaldo Forni 1986

Publications - Contributions 36 ème Congrès national de Lutherie et Archetèrie d'art. Conférences de Eric Blot & Roberto Regazzi, Montpellier – Le Corum 1994, ad ind. "A comprehensive investigation of mechanical and acoustic modifications in wood treated with high doses of gamma radiation for sterilization", in Radiation Effects and Defects in Solids, 171:9–10, 714–725, DOI: 10.1080/10420150.2016.1253089 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10420150.2016.1253089 A Life of Artistry – Sketches of Otello Bignami violin maker in Bologna 1914–1989, with Roberto Verti, Adriano Cavicchi and Giovanna Benzi, Bologna, Florenus Edizioni, 1991 "A new analytical approach to characterize the effect of γ-ray sterilization on wood", in Microchemical Journal 143 (2018) pp. 493–502 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2018.08.001 "A scuola da Otello", in Jadranka Bentini and Piero Mioli (eds.), Maestri di Musica al Martini, I musicisti del Novecento che hanno fatto la storia di Bologna e del suo Conservatorio, Bologna, 2021, pp. 345–348 "Amati [Melchioni, Marchioni], Nicolò", in New Grove – Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, 2001: https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.00738 "Ansaldo, liutaio per missione", in Jadranka Bentini and Piero Mioli (eds.), Maestri di Musica al Martini, I musicisti del Novecento che hanno fatto la storia di Bologna e del suo Conservatorio, Bologna, 2021, pp. 341–344 "Ansaldo Poggi, part 1" by Dmitry Gindin and Roberto Regazzi in The Cozio Carteggio, Tarisio.com, 15 May 2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20211023084945/https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/ansaldo-poggi-part-1/ "Ansaldo Poggi, part 2" by Dmitry Gindin with the collaboration of Roberto Regazzi in The Cozio Carteggio, Tarisio.com, 22 May 2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20211130172314/https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/ansaldo-poggi-part-2/ "Ansaldo Poggi 1893–1984" in The Strad magazine, January 1985 (Obituary, p. 643) "Ansaldo Poggi centenary concert" in The Strad magazine, February 1994 Ansaldo Poggi lo Stradivari del Novecento – Un percorso nell'eccellenza della liuteria italiana attraverso i violini del maestro medicinese a cura di Raffaella Guicciardi, Andrea Zanrè & Comitato Tecnico-Scientifico (Gian Carlo Guicciardi, Elisa Scrollavezza, Paolo Bandini, Roberto Regazzi, Lorenzo Frignani, Enrico Caprara, Gloria Malavasi). Medicina 1–13 ottobre 2024 "Poggi, Ansaldo" in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani – Volume 84 (2015) "Pollastri, Augusto", by Jaak Liivoja-Lorius and Roberto Regazzi in New Grove – Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online: https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000044327, https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.44327 Augusto and Gaetano Pollastri, part 1, by Dmitry Gindin with the collaboration of Roberto Regazzi, 20 March 2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20190504092806/https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/augusto-and-gaetano-pollastri-part-1/ Between Bologna and Stradivari. The European journeys of Giuseppe Fiorini, Cremona-Bologna 2011, Edizioni Novecento Bignami, Otello in New Grove – Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online: https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000052227 , https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.52227 "Carving a pioneering path" [the life of Alvina de Ferenczy] in The Strad magazine, August 2015 Characterisation of varnishes used in violins by pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, in Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 2008; 22 Classic Violin-making in Piedmonte, Bologna, Florenus Edizioni, 1991 "Fiorini's favourite pupil" in The Strad magazine, September 1994 "Giuseppe Fiorini" in Arte Liutaria, Florence, 1988, n. 11, pp. 29–32 Gli Asteroidi, a movie by Germano Maccioni, 2016 "I Fiorini e il Rinascimento", in Jadranka Bentini and Piero Mioli (eds.), Maestri di Musica al Martini, I musicisti del Novecento che hanno fatto la storia di Bologna e del suo Conservatorio, Bologna, 2021, pp. 333–336 "I Pollastri da Castiglione a S.Martino", in Jadranka Bentini and Piero Mioli (eds.), Maestri di Musica al Martini, I musicisti del Novecento che hanno fatto la storia di Bologna e del suo Conservatorio, Bologna, 2021, pp. 337–340 Il Settecento Liutario Bolognese, Scuola Popolare di Musica di Testaccio, Rome, 1989, 25 Feb. (lecture) "In Focus – Ansaldo Poggi (1933)" in The Strad magazine, January 2020, pp. 61–63 "In Focus – Ansaldo Poggi violin of 1953. Roberto Regazzi looks at a fine violin made for the Italian soloist Uto Ughi" in The Strad magazine, September 1994, p. 892 La Liuteria in Emilia e Romagna dalle origini ai giorni nostri, Rimini 2002. Idealibri. Lutherie in Bologna: Roots & Success, Roberto Regazzi with Sandro Pasqual, Bologna, Florenus Edizioni, 1998 "Musical Instruments' Acoustics as seen from a violin maker's point of view through the ages", in: ICA 17th International Congress on Acoustics – Rome 2–7 September 2001, Rome 2001 Mozart a Bologna (2016), a movie by Graziano Cernoia, 2016

"Oddone, Carlo Giuseppe" in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani – Volume 79 (2013) Otello Bignami Cent'anni – Centenary 1914–2014, Bologna 2014, CNA Celebration Committee Otello Bignami, Ricordi, 46 testimonianze nel centenario della sua nascita, Bologna, Comitato Celebrativo 2014 Otello Bignami Liutaio in Bologna – Violinmaker in Bologna, with Wilma e William Bignami, Mariarosa Pollastri, Roberto Regazzi, Bruno Stefanini, Loretta Ghelfi and Paola Malaguti, Cremona and Bologna 1998 (Turris), 2005, "Otello Bignami", in Cozio Carteggio, Tarisio 7 December 2016: https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/otello-bignami "Poggi, Ansaldo", by Jaak Liivoja-Lorius and Roberto Regazzi in New Grove – Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online: https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000044326 – https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.44326 "Pollastri, Augusto" in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani – Volume 84 (2015) Raffaele and Giuseppe Fiorini, part 1, by Dmitry Gindin and Roberto Regazzi, 4 December 2018: https://web.archive.org/web/20210926071616/https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/fiorinis-part-1 Raffaele and Giuseppe Fiorini, part 2, by Dmitry Gindin and Roberto Regazzi, 12 December 2018: https://web.archive.org/web/20181212081606/https://tarisio.com/cozio-archive/cozio-carteggio/fiorinis-part-2 "Spirit of Diversity" in The Strad magazine, September 2014, pp. 63–66 "The man who bought Stradivari's workshop" in The Strad magazine, September 2011, pp. 79–86 "The pupils of the workshop" in Otello Bignami Cent'anni – Centenary 1914–2014, Bologna, Comitato Celebrativo, 2014 The Magic of Wood, interviewed by Linda Johnston, with a.o.Rudolf Koelman, Salvatore Greco, Joaquín Palomares, etc.. Genova, Dynamic 2005, edited also with a Japanese translation. The Sound of Bologna, Bolognese Violin Making between the 1800s and 1900s – Events dedicated to Raffaele Fiorini and the Violin Making Tradition of the City. Bologna, Florenus 1991 Bologna, 7–22 December 2002, Art and History Collections of Fondazione Carisbo in Bologna San Giorgio in Poggiale, with William Bignami, Gabriele Carletti, Alberto Giordano, Giancarlo Guicciardi, Sandro Pasqual, Mariarosa Pollastri, Roberto Regazzi, Duane Rosengard, Pietro Trimboli and Alessandro Urso "The situation of violin making in Bologna in the 18th century" in Fourth Tiverton Violin Conference, East Devon College 1989, "The Tononi family" in The Cozio Carteggio, Tarisio.com, March 2015 Tecniche basate sulla conoscenza per la classificazione di oggetti complessi, un'applicazione all'analisi di violini di interesse storico, graduation thesis by Alessandro Bugatti and Adriano Ragazzi on the identification of Bignami violins. Prof. Giovanni Guida: supervisor; Piero Mussio, Ing. Pietro Baroni, Dott. Renato Meucci, Roberto Regazzi: assistant supervisors and collaborator Tre Secoli di Liuteria a Bologna – Mostra-Concerto a Casa Lauro in occasione del Congresso UEL 1993 / Three Centuries of Violin-making in Bologna, Unione Europea Maestri Liutai a Archettai – Union Europäischer Geigen-und Bogenbau Meister – Union Europeenne des Maîtres Luthiers at Archetiers, Bologna 1993, UEL Uso di pirolisi con gas cromatografia e spettrometria di massa per lo studio delle vernici usate dagli antichi liutai, graduation thesis by Emanuela Marin, Bologna University 2007. Prof. Giuseppe Chiavari: supervisor; Roberto Regazzi: assistant supervisor with Alberto Giordano: "Violino Giovanni Antonio Marchi – Bologna, ca. 1770" in Archi Magazine-"Grandi Strumenti", Nov.-Dec. 2021, pp. 28–34 "Violino Marco Dobretsovich – Alessandria d'Egitto, 1928" in Archi Magazine, Nov.-Dec. 2023, pp. 54–58 Wood-n-Soul, a movie by Alessio Gonnella, 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20210907075552/http://cargocollective.com/alessiogonnella/Lavori/Wood-n-Soul