Klosters Music Violin Summit launches inaugural violin making competition

Violin makers from around the world are invited to create facsimiles of the c.1744 ‘Sainton’ Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ for the inaugural Klosters Music Violin Summit, taking place from 2 to 7 August 2027 as part of the Klosters Music festival in Switzerland. Entries are now open, with registration closing on 31 January 2027.

Curated by Balthazar Soulier of Atelier Cels, Paris, the Summit is conceived as an annual international forum bringing violin making, research, conservation and performance into dialogue. Each edition will focus on one historical instrument and its maker through three interconnected strands: a symposium and exhibition, an academy for young makers, and a violin making competition.

The inaugural edition is devoted to Giuseppe Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ and centres on the ‘Sainton’, among the finest violins of his final period. The instrument will also be heard during the festival, played by Arabella Steinbacher.

Every maker entering the competition will receive the same detailed record of the ‘Sainton’, produced by Atelier Cels in collaboration with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble. The dataset includes synchrotron micro-tomography visualisations and measurements, macro- and microphotography, and material analyses.

Using this body of evidence, makers are invited to decide which state of the instrument they wish to reproduce and what degree of fidelity their facsimile should pursue. They may reproduce the violin as it survives today, with its distortions, wear and structural alterations; reconstruct its presumed original form by tracing back later changes; or engage with del Gesù’s making process itself — the techniques, gesture and spontaneity that may have shaped the original instrument.

All three approaches are equally welcome. Taken together, the resulting instruments are intended to form a collective experiment in interpreting del Gesù: one historical instrument, one shared body of evidence, many readings.

The instruments will be assessed by two juries. Peter Biddulph, Michael Baumgartner and Philip Ihle will evaluate the making from complementary perspectives, while festival soloists Bomsori Kim, Arabella Steinbacher, Aylen Pritchin and Lawrence Power will assess their sound.

Selected facsimiles will be played in a public final concert on 6 August, followed by the award ceremony. All entries will be exhibited the following day.

Running alongside the competition, the Summit Academy offers twelve funded places for five days of bench work led by Philip Ihle in partnership with the Violin Making School Brienz. Taking the ‘Sainton’ scroll as their starting point, participants will explore how working methods, choice of tools and gesture shape form and style.

The symposium and exhibition will present current research into the life, work and reception of del Gesù, with speakers to be announced in spring 2027.

Full details and competition entry at klosters-music.ch.