Lutherie
GIO BATTA MORASSI
IN FOCUS
WRITTEN BY YURI POCHEKIN
A close look at the work of great and unusual makers
Gio Batta Morassi, one of the foremost figures in 20th-century Cremonese violin making, was born in 1934 in Arta Terme, about 30 miles north of Udine in north-east Italy. Morassi graduated from the Cremona International Violin Making School in 1955 and continued to develop his art under the influence of the great violin makers of that time: Leandro Bisiach, Ferdinando Garimberti and Giuseppe Ornati. In 1957 he became an assistant to Pietro Sgarabotto and in 1959 opened his own workshop in Cremona. Over the years, his stringed instruments were awarded numerous gold medals at international violin making competitions, cementing his reputation as one of the successors to the great classical tradition of Cremonese violin making.