From the 5th to the 10th February, Cremona became the crossroads of great international violinism, thanks to the exceptional co- presence of four great artists, Salvatore Accardo , Vadim Repin , Marco Rizzi and Roman Simovic , who converged to the Stauffer Academy for a week of masterclasses, concerts and workshops dedicated to the Art of the Violin.
During the Stauffer Violin Week, 32 students from 17 different countries enjoyed the rare opportunity to meet with four prominent figures of the artistic world and explore their different styles, visions and repertoires. Topics ranged from the Russian school of Vadim Repin, who offered a focus on romantic violin concertos, to the technical and interpretative exploration of the “sound” led by Marco Rizzi; from an in-depth study of orchestral audition techniques with Roman Simovic, Leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, to a session of lessons with Salvatore Accardo, Professor of the Stauffer annual High Specialisation Course.
The initiative was received with great enthusiasm by the Stauffer Academy’s students, who crowded the classrooms at Palazzo Stauffer to participate in the 80 hours of classes and 4 scheduled concerts. “We all feel we are not the same people we were at the beginning of this week. I’ve come out of this experience with a totally different spirit, like I am reborn” , says Giulia Cellacchi, a student
of Maestro Accardo’s annual course.
“We wanted to create an immersive atmosphere, bringing together great artists with very distinctive personalities, thus offering Stauffer students the opportunity to experience different repertoires and technical-interpretative approaches within a period o f a few days” , says Angelica Suanno, Director of the Stauffer Academy. “We have received extremely positive feedback not only from the students, but also from the professors, who, during the various concerts, could listen to their students perform also different pieces to those they had addressed during their masterclasses. Given the success of this initiative, we are considering proposing this formula again in the future, also for other instruments or artistic projects”.
The Stauffer Violin Week also included an audio production workshop organized in collaboration with the SAE Institute in Milan, aimed at providing string instrumentalists with a fundamental understanding and knowledge of modern sound recording techniques, a skill that is becoming increasingly important in the lives of today’s professional musicians.