Carlos Funes Vitanza 16.5" viola, 2012, San Francisco | Metzler Violins

[further details about this instrument are forthcoming]

About the Maker
Carlos Funes Vitanza (1958- ) is a contemporary luthier who was born in La Lima, Honduras to Honduran and Italian parents. When Vitanza was nine, the family immigrated to the Bay Area of California. A cellist as a child, Vitanza built his first cello unassisted at the age of fourteen. Using his high school woodshop, Vitanza went on to build two violas, a violin, guitar, and second cello. In 1979, Vitanza attended the historic Scuola Internazionale di Liuteria (International Violin Making School) in Cremona, where he studied under the master luthiers Giorgio Scolari, Stefano Conia, and Riccardo Bergonzi. In his spare time, Vitanza was trained in wood sculpture by a Cremonese master woodcarver. Upon his graduation in 1983, Vitanza remained in Cremona for three years, during which he crafted a series of violins, violas, cellos, as well as Renaissance and Baroque instruments. During his seven years in Italy, Vitanza built over thirty instruments. In 1986, Vitanza returned to the United States and joined the Roland Feller Violins atelier in San Francisco, working closely with Simone Sacconi to learn the German art of restoration. Vitanza’s instruments reflect his deep study of the Italian masters, and examples of his work are on display the IPIALL Museum in Cremona.

https://carlosvitanza.weebly.com/