Boston’s Old World Luthier
As a luthier—crafter and restorer of stringed instruments— Marco Coppiardi carries on an Italian hometown tradition. More than 300 years ago, his birthplace, Cremona, gave the world Andrea Amati—father of the violin as we know it today. The Lombardy town (population just 50,000) also produced the masterful Antonio Stradivari and Andrea Guarneri. Their presence resonated through three centuries to influence Coppiardi’s future. He began playing cello at nine and was just 14 when he built his first violin. At 25, Coppiardi came to Boston to study music at the prestigious Berklee College of Music. “I was only there two months,” he said with a gentle laugh. His ability to restore, repair and create stringed instruments quickly trumped his studies.

Today, he practices his Old World craft in a studio on Boston’s fashionable Newberry Street. Clientele come to him from throughout the nation and across the globe. “It’s really remarkable how it’s all connected,” he said. “Right now, I am working on a violin made in Cremona in the 1600s that today belongs to a woman living in Missouri.”

Terming the violin, “the ultimate icon of Western civilization,” he noted that while many factories can make violins, the early instruments are “still unmatched in quality. I was so fortunate. I started out maintaining the old instruments. I had a chance to open them up and see them inside.” Coppiardi, who currently specializes in creating handmade replicas of Strads, even imports spruce from the same valley thought to have produced the wood for the 17th-century creations.

Boston provides an ideal location for his work, Coppiardi said. “There are many classical musicians here, even MIT has a music department.” However, several times a year he leaves his studio and travels the globe. “Of course I love going back to Italy. I also go to London, Paris and Japan quite a lot. I recently made a viola for the crown prince of Japan so I go there and other places, too, either to deliver an instrument or to do a restoration.”

His work also takes him to some of America’s loveliest locations. “Portland is wonderful. I love walking downtown. Santa Fe has a great music festival and opera. I go to both enjoy [the music] and also to maintain the instruments.
There is a relationship between the musician and the repair person like me. During the year I have to see the instrument to adjust the sound post. Know
-ing the musicians over the span of years I see them change. It is
quite fascinating.”

 

Get the Right Seat
Sending a child to music camp? Planning to tote your own stringed instrument aboard an aircraft? Coppiardi recommends extra care when booking tickets—especially if the cello is your traveling companion. “First never ship an instrument through. Violins and violas it is not too hard to carry on. The case often takes a little more length than the 22 inches allowed, but most flight attendants are helpful.”Traveling with a cello is a lot more difficult, according to Coppiardi. The instrument must have its own seat and not just any seat will do. “It has to be in the bulkhead if you are in coach and that is in a different place on different planes. I’ve known musicians who purchase a seat online, and they find they do not have a seat that will accommodate their cello. ”

Humidity Matters
“We need to hydrate when we travel and so do instruments. I always leave inside the case a little pocket of gel that releases humidity. I have heard some musicians from New Mexico where it is very dry say they use a potato in the case to add humidity. I have never tried that but the gel packet works very well.”