Stefano & Valerio
Stefano Gibertoni
With a grandfather and a great grandfather pianists and composers, Stefano has always breathed music; as a child he studies violin at the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan.
After his scientific high school diploma, he visits the Civica Scuola di Liuteria and is amazed by the environment and remains fascinated from the passion of his future teacher, Maestro Luca Primon.
He enrolls with enthusiasm and after graduation in 1991 he moves to the UK where he works as a luthier in some shops.
In 1994 he opens his business building instruments both for local musicians and numerous retailers around the world.
In his professional developement the most significant experiences are certainly those in the US. In particular the Oberlin violinmaking workshops, OH, attended in 2001. Here, Stefano learns in an exciting and stimulating environment with the most advanced experts of every field. Through the years he explores proportional drawing and designs, collaborates with the acoustic workshops, deepens his understanding of varnishing and antiquing techniques and experiments with all sorts of setups.
He also recalls with great affection and gratitude the work experience at Frederick Oster Fine Violins in Philadelphia in 2004, where he learns and consolidates new restoration and setup techniques.
In 2012 Stefano returns in Civica Scuola di Liuteria in Milan, where he will remain until 2016, this time as a teacher of construction and varnishing. Here he meets Valerio, a talented student, and begins a collaboration with him that continues to this day.
Valerio Nalin
Born in Milan in 1993, he grows up in close contact with arts and music and from the age of 10 he develops a passion for the guitar.
In 2012 he enrolls at the Civica Scuola di Liuteria in Milan under the guidance of Maestri Lorenzo Rossi, Stefano Gibertoni and Gabriele Negri.
In the summer of 2015 he strengthens his training with Stefano Gibertoni in Sheffield, UK, and from this experience begins a collaboration that will be consolidated in the following years.
In 2016 he follows the training courses on bow maintenance, held by Maestro Pietro Cavalazzi.
Since 2017 he works in Milan, sharing the workshop with Stefano.
In 2019 he participates in the international violinmaking competition “Postacchini-Ricucci” in Fermo, obtaining the second prize for violin in the category “antiqued instruments”.
He keeps himself updated on technological, diagnostic and historical development, thanks to the constant exchange wth other professionals.
He cooperates with the association “Ospitalitá Solidale”; with them he is involved in social requalification of difficult districts in Milan. With this and other local associations he is active in urban agricultural projects and participates in the management of green spaces in the south-east of the city.