Cello takes center stage at 15th edition of luthiers’ fair

Catalonia’s western town of Cervera hosted a music fair with a difference on Wednesday: the 15th edition of its annual luthiers’ fair.

A luthier is someone who builds and repairs stringed instruments, and this year’s Fira de Lutiers, as the event is known in Catalan, was dedicated to the cello, with a 1694 cello as the star of the show.

In fact, one of the fair’s highlights was the chance to hear the vintage cello made by the master 17th century Italian luthier, Giovanni Grancino, played by its owner, Laurentiu Sbarcea.

The Grancino cello was also in action later in the evening, when Sbarcea took part in a concert with Les Madmoicelli.

In all, the fair brought together 20 luthiers, including from Israel and France, who together carried out some 16 workshops on different aspects of making instruments by hand.

There were also plenty of music teachers and students, as the fair is also part of the Càtedra Emili Pujol music course, taking place in the town between July 22 and 29.

Among the guests at this year’s fair were representatives of the Rigoutat workshop from Paris and Israel’s Galileo Dolce instrument makers.

Also attending was the Knobloch Strings company from Girona, and the Sol Major music shop in Cervera. Meanwhile, Catalonia’s association of music publishers held its annual sheet music exhibition.

As for the head of the Càtedra, Estefania Balcells, she described the fair in Cervera as “fully consolidated.” Balcells also suggested that in this year’s edition a “seed” had been planted among the participants, who have shown an interest in creating some type of professional luthiers’ association around the event.