{"id":23488,"date":"2024-09-05T18:43:24","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T16:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stauffer.org\/fondatore\/"},"modified":"2025-02-20T11:15:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T10:15:51","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.stauffer.org\/en\/history\/","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The Foundation<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The\u00a0Stauffer Foundation<\/strong>\u00a0is a private institution devoted to the promotion and preservation of musical and cultural heritage. Established in\u00a01970\u00a0by\u00a0Walter Stauffer,<\/strong> a visionary Swiss-Italian entrepreneur and philanthropist deeply connected with Cremona, the mission of the Foundation is to foster the teaching of\u00a0string instruments<\/strong>, to support\u00a0musicological research<\/strong> and to safeguard the\u00a0violin-making tradition<\/strong>\u00a0that has made Cremona world-famous.<\/p>

1985 marks the birth of the\u00a0Stauffer Academy<\/strong>, with the purpose of supporting the artistic growth of young and talented string players through\u00a0a<\/strong>dvanced training programmes\u00a0and\u00a0concert-oriented courses.<\/p>

Beyond its commitment to music education, the\u00a0Stauffer Foundation\u00a0also supports some of the most important musical institutions in Cremona, including the\u00a0International School of Violin Making, the\u00a0\u201cMuseo del Violino Antonio Stradivari\u201d Foundation and the\u00a0Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage at the University of Pavia.<\/p>

The Foundation also owns a collection of\u00a0precious historic string instruments<\/strong>, displayed at the\u00a0Violin Museum in Cremona, including the\u00a0\u201cStauffer\u201d Guarneri del Ges\u00f9 Violin<\/strong> (1734),<\/strong> the Enrico Ceruti Violin<\/strong> (1868), the\u00a0\u201cStauffer\u201d Gerolamo Amati Viola<\/strong> (1615) and the\u00a0\u201cStauffer \u2013 ex Cristiani\u201d Antonio Stradivari Cello<\/strong> (1700).<\/p>

In 2023, the Stauffer Foundation was awarded the \u201cPresident of the Republic\u201d Prize<\/strong> by Italian President Sergio Mattarella<\/strong> as an institution of excellence in music education.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The Founder<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Ernst Walter Stauffer<\/strong> was born on the 7th<\/sup> of January in 1887, to Swiss parents. Although he was born in Italy, in Sesto Cremonese, Walter Stauffer always retained his Swiss citizenship.<\/p>

Deeply attached to his hometown of Bern, where he passed away on the 26th<\/sup> of February in 1974, he also had a profound love for Cremona, his adopted city, where he spent most of his life and led his entire professional career in the dairy industry.<\/p>

Thanks to his keen business acumen, he significantly expanded his family business, gathering a considerable patrimony. A true patron of the arts<\/strong>, encouraged and guided by trusted friends \u2013 chief among them, the notary\u00a0Giuseppe Gambaro<\/strong> \u2013 he initiated several projects with a clear cultural purpose.<\/p>

In 1969, he donated\u00a0100 million lire\u00a0to the\u00a0City of Cremona\u00a0for the purchase of the\u00a016th<\/sup>-century Palazzo Raimondi, under the condition that it would become the home of the\u00a0International School of Violin Making\u00a0and the\u00a0School of Paleography and Musical Philology.<\/p>

On\u00a0the 19th<\/sup> of October 1970, he founded the\u00a0Stauffer Foundation, naming it \u201cWalter Stauffer Musicology Centre\u201d<\/strong>, with the goal of fostering the teaching of classical violin making, of string instruments, music history and musicology. Before passing away, he designated the\u00a0Foundation as his universal heir, emphasizing that Cremona had given birth not only to great luthiers such as\u00a0Stradivari, Amati, and Guarneri del Ges\u00f9\u00a0but also to an outstanding musical figure like\u00a0Claudio Monteverdi.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The Academy<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The\u00a0Stauffer Academy<\/strong>, the main activity of the Foundation, was established in\u00a0Cremona in 1985<\/strong>, thanks to two remarkable figures:\u00a0Andrea Mosconi<\/strong>, former artistic director of the Monteverdi Festival and curator of Cremona\u2019s collection of string instruments, and\u00a0Salvatore Accardo<\/strong>, one of the greatest Italian violinists of all time, the first Italian to win the\u00a0Paganini Competition, a tireless musician and teacher.<\/p>

At the heart of the project lay the desire to\u00a0preserve and promote the Italian school of string instruments<\/strong>\u00a0by providing\u00a0the highest level of artistic and professional training<\/strong>\u00a0for talented young musicians coming from Italy and around the world. In 1985, Accardo, who still leads the Violin Course, brought together the greatest personalities of Italian music of the time, forming a class for each one of the main string instruments. United by the same educational values, Bruno Giuranna<\/strong> (Viola and Chamber Music), Rocco Filippini<\/strong> (Cello) and Franco Petracchi<\/strong> (Double Bass) promptly responded to his invitation.<\/p>

The Academy quickly became a leading institution for promising string players, many of whom went on to achieve major international careers. Its mission has always been to provide the highest level of support for the artistic growth, professional training and advanced development of young musicians from Italy and around the world. Furthermore, it strives to create meaningful opportunities to help their successful transition into the professional world, as Stauffer’s core values are centred on nurturing the most valuable universal heritage \u2013 human and artistic talent.<\/p>

In\u00a02010,<\/strong> the Academy introduced a String Quartet Course, led by the\u00a0Quartetto di Cremona<\/strong> (Cristiano Gualco, Paolo Andreoli, Simone Gramaglia and Giovanni Scaglione). In\u00a02015,\u00a0Antonio Meneses<\/strong>\u00a0took the chair of the Cello class, the position that was taken over by\u00a0Frans Helmerson<\/strong> in 2024. That same year,\u00a0Alberto Bocini<\/strong>\u00a0joined the Academy as\u00a0the Double Bass Professor.<\/p>

As the Academy expanded its offer, it maintained the highest standards of faculty excellence, continuously innovating its educational programmes, adding new classes and instrumental sections and incorporating\u00a0interdisciplinary studies. One of its most remarkable recent additions is the\u00a0Concertmaster Course<\/strong>, led by distinguished Concertmasters<\/strong> from the leading European orchestras and renowned conductors.<\/strong><\/p>

Over the past\u00a040 years, the\u00a0Stauffer Academy\u00a0has trained\u00a0numerous winners of international competitions,\u00a0successful soloists and\u00a0leading orchestra musicians, including many\u00a0concertmasters and chamber musicians\u00a0who now perform at major international festivals and venues.<\/p>

Thanks to the Academy\u2019s\u00a0unique organisational model, the courses have always been tuition-free<\/strong>, thus ensuring accessibility and support for young musicians. Students are hosted at\u00a0Palazzo Stauffer<\/strong>, a beautifully restored facility functional to music education.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Foundation The\u00a0Stauffer Foundation\u00a0is a private institution devoted to the promotion and preservation of musical and cultural heritage. Established in\u00a01970\u00a0by\u00a0Walter Stauffer, a visionary Swiss-Italian entrepreneur and philanthropist deeply connected with Cremona, the mission of the Foundation is to foster the teaching of\u00a0string instruments, to support\u00a0musicological research and to safeguard the\u00a0violin-making tradition\u00a0that has made Cremona world-famous. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27402,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"founder.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23488","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"History - Fondazione Stauffer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For over 50 years, serving music and violin making, shaping the great artists of tomorrow and sharing Cremona\u2019s cultural heritage with the world.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stauffer.org\/en\/history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"History - Fondazione Stauffer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For over 50 years, serving music and violin making, shaping the great artists of tomorrow and sharing Cremona\u2019s cultural heritage with the world.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.stauffer.org\/en\/history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fondazione Stauffer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-20T10:15:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.stauffer.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Storia_Walter_Stauffer.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.stauffer.org\\\/en\\\/history\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.stauffer.org\\\/en\\\/history\\\/\",\"name\":\"History - 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