I was born in Florence in 1974, from a family of artisan traditions thus my childhood was spent surrounded by artists, painters and creators.
My paternal grandparents were from Badia Prataglia, a little village deep in the forest of the Tuscan Casentino famous since ancient times for woodwork.
Their parents had always worked as lathe turners and restorers transmitting their art to their children and grandchildren from the 1800’s until now.
In order to follow the artisan tradition, I studied at ITI, IPIA. “Leonardo da Vinci” attending at the same time the Conservatory “L. Cherubini” in Florence in the class for double bass.
During the years of study at the Conservatory I became friends with the children of Maestro Paolo Vettori , Dario and Sofia, with whom I played in a little chamber orchestra.
Thanks to them I became acquainted with the stringed instrument creation of the workshop that I still frequent and from which I continue to receive stimuli, excellent advice, moulds, models and instructions from the Bisiach family and from G. Stefanini.
Directed by the teaching of the Vettori family I restored my first double bass, a French instrument from the end of the 1800’s found by chance in a shop and with which in 2002 I passed the diploma in the Conservatory.
Very taken up with playing in various orchestras, chamber groups and opera companies, my activity as instrument maker was briefly interrupted.
However I continued to frequent various workshops and the desire to keep in touch with wood led me to follow a course in the restoration of antique furniture so that I found myself working beside a restorer in a Florentine workshop.
One day Paolo Vettori and his son Dario take me with them to buy wood from an instrument maker of Cento,
Ferrara, who presents me as a gift an antique shape to make a double bass which came from the Carletti family.
Years later with finally the possibility of having a laboratory I decided to make my first double bass.
Since that time there has been an ongoing collaboration with various instrument makers, musicians , friends, lovers of music and instrument making which has lead me to the construction of many instruments for prestigious schools of music, soloists, important maestri and above all for young musicians and colleagues.
My philosophy of work is not very different from that of the ancient instrument makers. I try to use indigenous materials in the zone in which I live and where I grew up, I cut and season personally the wood I decide to use for my instruments, take inspiration from the forms and models of the Tuscan school and of the nearby regions, not by chance the antique shape has origins in Romagna, but with no disdain for the other great Italian schools of instrument making, of which the style and perfection of some are for me unattainable.
Being both a double bass maker and a musician, active in a variety of orchestral and chamber music formations, I am able to test my instruments on stage and hear and feel how they change with the passing of time, a unique satisfaction and emotion which is renewed each and every time I place the bow for the first time on the strings of the new instrument.
Welcome in my Workshop
