WALTER BARBIERO
I started studying music as a child under the guidance of my accordionist father, then violin and viola studies graduating at the Conservatorio A. Steffani of Castelfranco Veneto with Master Luca Volpato and at the “Ecole Nationale de Musique et de Danse” in France with H. Suignard.
I have collaborated as a violist with many orchestras, including Mario Brunello’s Orchestra d’Archi Italiana, “La grande Ecourie et la Chambre du Roy” conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire in Paris, Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Fenice, Chamber Orchestra of Padua and Veneto and many others.
The great passion for lutherie and bow making leads me to start as a self-taught person and then study and improve myself with various master bowmakers, including Nelly Poidevin, Christian Barthe in France, Alfredo Clemente in Cologne, and in 2012 a Workshop with Maestro J.F. Refin.
In 2020 I won the first prize at the “Malta International Baroque Bow making competition” affirming my knowledge and construction of ancient arches.
My study focuses with particular attention on ancient, baroque, classical and transitional, but also Renaissance bows reconstructed from iconographic sources.
In 1997 I opened my shop in Piombino Dese, where I build bows for many professional musicians including Danilo Rossi, Giuliano Carmignola, Viktoria Mullova, Mario Brunello, Isabelle Faust, Uto Ughi, Gilles Apap, Giovanni Angeleri, Sigurd Imsen, Renaud Capuçon, Gabriele Ragghianti, Alfredo Zamarra and many others.
I regularly take part to the main international exhibitions in Frankfurt, Cremona, Tokyo, Shanghai, Cliveland (America) and Paris.
I have always alternated my musical activity with the bowmaker one. My bows stand out for their soft, elegant sound as well as for their good technical characteristics.
Bow, for a musician, is an indispensable medium to express his whole being, thoughts, emotions, the deepest self…music.