The Sparebanken Sør Instrument Fund Foundation

Giuseppe Rocca learned his craft from the great violin maker Giovanni Francesco Pressenda, with whom he apprenticed from 1834 to 1838 in Turin, Italy.  Rocca worked independently from 1838, and by the 1840s he had moved away from Pressenda’s influence, choosing instead to model his instruments after the ‘Alard’ Guarneri del Gesú of 1742 and the ‘Messiah’ Stradivari of 1716.  Scholars believe that Rocca must have been acquainted with the collector Luigi Tarisio, who had both of these instruments in his collection as early as 1827. The 1840s and 1850s are considered the pinnacle of Rocca’s career, and these years produced some of the finest violins created in the^mid-19th century.

The foundation’s violin, built in 1843, is modeled after the “Messiah” Stradivarius. It is crafted from the finest materials, featuring a one-piece maple back with medium curl, and finished with a luminous, transparent varnish typical of Rocca. The violin is an extraordinary concert instrument with a broad, projecting sound befitting the concertmaster’s position.  The violin is accompanied by a wonderful letter from the great violin expert, Arthur Hill, dated 1898, stating: “As an example of the work of Giuseppe Rocca, who, when the history of the violin is properly written, we believe will turn out to be the violin-making genius of the century. We recommend this instrument to you as one of his finest.”

Jean Baptiste Vuillaume was a prolific maker of fine violins, as well as a highly successful dealer and inventor. He first studied violin making in Mirecourt with his father, then moved to Paris and apprenticed with Georges Chanot around 1818.  Vuillaume established his own workshop in Paris around 1827. The Vuillaume workshop flourished and employed some of the finest^19th-century French violin makers, including Maucotel, Silvestre, and Derazey, as well as bow makers Peccatte, Persoit, Simon, and Voirin. The workshop produced over 3,000 instruments of consistently high quality.  Most of these bear a label, brand, number, and signature that make them easily identifiable as examples of the Vuillaume workshop. Vuillaume was highly skilled as a copyist of older Cremonese instruments, such as those by Stradivari and Guarneri ‘del Gésú,’ and acquired the 144 great Cremonese instruments of the Luigi Tarisio collection in 1855.

The foundation’s cello is a beautiful and exceptionally well-preserved instrument by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, dated 1860. The cello bears Vuillaume’s label, brand, signature, and is numbered 2376. The cello features a back and sides of fine maple, marked by a prominent narrow-width figure ascending from the center joint. The top is made of narrow-grained spruce that widens at the flanks. The varnish is a beautiful orange-brown on a golden ground.  The cello is unique in that the varnish was never antiqued when new, and has never been over-polished. This has allowed the varnish to maintain its lovely soft texture, a rarity among Vuillaume’s notoriously large output. The Stradivari-model cello has a beautiful, projecting sound suitable for the role of solo cello.

Kelvin Walker Scott is one of the leading violin makers currently working in the United States. He attended the Chicago School of Violin Making before apprenticing with the renowned American maker Greg Alf. Scott established his own workshop in Chicago in 2000 before moving to Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2003.  He has received multiple gold medals for craftsmanship and tone from the Violin Society of America, as well as medals at the Triennial Competition in Cremona, Italy. In 2014, Scott received the rarely awarded Hors Concours prize from the Violin Society of America. To receive this award, one must win a gold medal in three separate competition years. Scott most recently served as a judge for the recent VSA competitions. This viola, built in 2025, is his personal model, based on a Gasparo Da Salo.  It is of comfortable proportions at 41 cm in length, and the model creates an instrument that is both light to play and produces a powerful, rich sound.

Having worked in violin shops since the age of ten, Christian Pedersen has extensive experience in every aspect of violin making and restoration. Pedersen majored in violin performance at West Texas State University and the University of North Texas, while apprenticing in luthier Steven Cundall’s shop in Aubrey, TX.  For the past 25 years, Pedersen has made his home at Robertson and Sons Violin Shop, where he has focused on producing exceptional violins, violas, cellos, and basses. Pedersen has won numerous awards for both tone and workmanship at competitions held by the Violin Society of America and the International Society of Basses.  In 2024, astronaut Sarah Gillis could be heard playing one of Christian Pedersen’s violins in orbit, as a crew member on SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn