Stiftelsen Sparebanken Sør Instrument Fund

Giuseppe Rocca learned his trade from the great violin maker Giovanni Francesco Pressenda, with whom he apprenticed in the years 1834 to 1838 in Turin, Italy.  Rocca worked independently from 1838, and by the 1840s he had departed from Pressenda’s influence, choosing instead to model after the ‘Alard’ Guarneri del Gesú of 1742, and the ‘Messiah’ Stradivari of 1716.  It is of scholarly opinion that Rocca must have been an acquaintance of the collector Luigi Tarisio, who had both of these instruments in his collection from 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 19^th century.

The foundation’s violin, built in 1843, is based on the ‘Messiah’ Stradavari. It is created from the finest materials with a one-piece maple back of medium curl and finished with a luminous, transparent varnish typical of Rocca.  The violin is an extraordinary concert instrument that features a broad and projecting sound fitting of the concertmaster 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, and he, when fiddle history comes to be properly written, will we believe, 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 19^th century French violin makers including Maucotel, Silvestre, Derazey, and bow makers Peccatte, Persoit, Simon and Voirin.  The shop created over 3000 instruments of a consistently high quality.  Most of these bear a label, brand, number, and signature that make them easily identified as examples of the Vuillaume workshop.  Vuillaume was greatly skilled as a copyist of the older Cremonese instruments, such as those of Stradivari and Guarneri ‘del Gésú, and came into possession of 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 of narrow- grained spruce widening 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 Stradavarian model cello has a beautiful, projecting sound fitting to the position of solo cello.

Kelvin Walker Scott is one of the premier 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 shop in Chicago in 2000 before moving to Knoxville, Tennessee in 2003.  He has received multiple gold medals for workmanship and tone at the Violin Society of America, as well as medaling at the Triennial Competition of Cremona, Italy. In 2014, Scott received the rarely given Hors Concours award at the Violin Society of America.  In order to receive this award, one must win a gold medal in three separate competition years.  Scott has most recently served as the 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 41cm in length, and the model creates an instrument that is both light to play on, with a powerful and rich sound.

Having worked in violin shops since age ten, Christian Pedersen has vast experience in every facet 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 for 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 violin in orbit, as a crew member on SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn