Luis, Luthier

Luis Fernández was born in Spain in 1956.

He attended the International Violin Making School in Cremona under the tutelage of master Vincenzo Bissolotti and graduated with merit in 1993. In the same year, he opened his own workshop in Valladolid (Spain) and since then he has devoted himself to making fine violins, violas, cellos (both modern and baroque), violas d' amore and violas da gamba.

As far as the construction and varnishing are concerned, he strictly follows the traditional methods passed down to him by his masters and, in order to achieve a durable construction, he chooses his wood not only for its beauty but also for its acoustic qualities and employs only flamed air-seasoned bosnian maple and strongly-grained italian spruce aged for over 25 years.

Since the beginning of his craftmanship, players have found his instruments very comfortable to play, with a balanced, powerful and rich harmonic tone. Nevertheless, as he is convinced that the acoustics of stringed instruments can steadily be improved, he has strived for constant improvement. Actually during the many years which he has devoted to violin making, Luis Fernández has made a lot of experiments and has tested his innovations with the help of demanding and sincere musicians who were always both curious and eager to try his instruments. In the course of time this collaboration has led him to build even more powerful instruments, with quicker response and whose tonal qualities, as it has been recognized by several outstanding musicians, offer an incredibly wide range of expressive possiblities.

Last but not least, it is also woth mentioning the transparence, brilliance, elasticity and smooth texture of his varnish that makes it possible to identify the authorship of his instruments even from afar.

In 2006 he was awarded the first prize in the Castilla y León Craftmanship Competition and in 2009 he finished finalist in the Spanish National Craftmanship Competition.

He gives lectures in several academies of music on the aspects of violin making that are relevant to musicians and accomplishes restauration processes on antique instruments.

Apart from his workshop in Spain, in 2015 he set up another one in the province Bergamo (Italy), where he usually works from June to October.

Besides Spain, he has sold his instruments in Israel, Italy, Germany and Great Britain.