Gaetano and Pietro Sgarabotto

Who is Gaetano and Pietro Sgarabotto?

Gaetano Sgarabotto 1878 - 1959 was born in Vicenza, Italy. He devoted his entire career to violin making. Gaetano was a very prolific violin maker making more than 700 instruments including violas & cellos.

His son Pietro Sgarabotto 1903–1990 born in Milan, retired 1971, but still produced masterworks as late as 1979; both worked for their whole life in Italy as master violinmakers.

Gaetano S. worked initially in the city of Vicenza for many years before moving to Milan in 1901 to work for Leandro Bisiach. He moved to Parma in 1926, where he stayed almost without interruptions until his death in 1959.

His son, Pietro, continued in his father’s profession and also became a master violinmaker in his own right. Today one speaks within initiated circles with the utmost admiration of the brief, but prestigious dynasty of violinmakers Sgarabotti. This refers to the historical presence of both these masters who, apart from creating their own master instruments, spent much of their time passing on experience to young violin makers.

Indeed the activity of the Sgarabotto makers was very influential in the violin making school of Parma, Cremona and elsewhere. Much could be said about their combined influence on the cultural heritage within the musical world of string instruments, and of the enormous regard and esteem with which all their students and musicians held the masters. The greatest interest by posterity, of course, centers on their combined oeuvre, on the set of master violins from their hand left for us to play and admire.