The first mentions of the violin in Poland appear in the fifteenth-century manuscript of the monk Nicholas the Italian inserted in ‘The Mediaeval Sermons’ by Alexander Brückner. That historical moment gave rise to the development of a new art discipline: luthiery. The profession owes its name to a different instrument – the lute. The workshop will include a demonstration of reconstructed mediaeval instruments together with their bows and other parts; not only of how they look, but also of their sound. The participants will have an opportunity to learn more about the history of the violin and the art of luthiery. The Polish and Italian schools of luthiery were the most prominent, and thus the names of the earliest Polish and other pre-eminent luthiers will appear in the presentation.

Introduction:
Andrzej Nogaj - luthier artist
Marcin Siwiec - luthier artist

Andrzej Nogaj - graduated from the Academy of Music in Poznań (the class of artistic luthiery led by Professor Antoni Krupa). Since 1985 he has run his private luthiery studio in Bydgoszcz and renovated a number of precious instruments of eminent musicians and students from Poland and abroad. An adherent to the classical school of instrument making, he draws inspiration and models from the works of old luthiery masters. Since 2001 he has been renovating musical instruments in the Music School in Toruń and since 2003 leading a class on the construction and methods of renovation of string instruments in the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz.

Marcin Siwiec - started his adventure with violin-making in the Antoni Kenar State School for Fine Arts in Zakopane, from which he graduated in 1995 defending his diploma work. He graduated Ignacy Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań. He participated in many international violin-making competitions and in 1998 he was awarded a honorary mention at the 9th Piotr Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow. He entered the competition with a Guarneri-model violin made by himself in the course of his third year of studies at the Academy. He developed his bow-making skills at Maison Bernard in Brussels, one of Europe’s oldest workshops of traditional French bow making, under direction of Pierre Guillaume. In 2001 he launched his Artistic Violin-Making and Bow-Making Workshop in Cracow. In 2004 he participated in the 3rd W. Kamieński Violin-Making Competition where he was awarded 3rd prize. Since 2004, he has been a member of the Association of Polish Violin Makers.