Antonio Stradivari (1644 - December 18, 1737) was an Italian "luthier", a crafter of stringed instruments such as violins, celli, guitars and harps. Stradivari is generally considered the most significant artisan in this field. The Latinized form of his surname, "Stradivarius", as well as the colloquial, "Strad", is often used to refer to his instruments.

Guarneri is the family name of a group of highly acclaimed violin makers (luthiers) from Cremona in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose standing is considered comparable to those of the Amati and Stradivari families. * Andrea Guarneri (c. 1626 - December 7, 1698) was an apprentice in the workshop of Nicolo Amati from 1641 to 1646 and returned to make violins for Amati from 1650 to 1654.

Janine Jansen (born in Utrecht, 1978) is a Dutch violinist. Her father and brother are also musicians. She began to study the violin at age 6. She studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Philipp Hirshhorn, and Boris Belkin. Jansen appeared as soloist with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland in 2001, where she performed the Brahms Violin Concerto. She opened the BBC Proms in 2005.

Luigi Tarisio (c. 1790 - October 1854) was an Italian violin dealer and collector. He was born at Fontaneto d'Agogna, near Novara, Piedmont, of humble parents and is said to have trained as a carpenter, playing violin as a hobby. He developed an interest in violins themselves, and as a connoisseur with a natural talent for business he began to acquire and resell some of the many fine instruments that were lying unused in the towns and villages of northern Italy.

Francesco Ruggieri (Also known as Rugier, Ruggeri, Ruggerius) was perhaps an apprentice of Nicolò Amati, another important luthier in Cremona Italy. Although other sources call this association into question. In support of Ruggieri being a pupil of Nicolò Amati there appears a court case brought in 1685 by a violinist who sought relief from the Duke of Modena as a victim of fraud. In this case, the violinist, one Tomasso Antonio Vitali, …

Matteo Goffriller (also Mateo Gofriller; 1659 - 1742) was a 18th century Italian luthier, who made exceptionally great cellos. He was born in Brixen. Little is known of his life before he moved to Venice in 1685 (Venice, during the seventeenth century, was one of the world's most important centers of musical activity in the world which attracted many of the violin makers from the Tyrolian region).

Giovanni Grancino (1637-1709), son of Andrea Grancino, was one of the early Milanese luthiers, and may have worked with brother, Francesco. Grancino's workshops were all located on "Contrada Larga", now "Via Larga" in Milan. His instruments all bear the characteristic "il segno della corona" (mark of the crown). Although the luthiers of Milan created instruments of varying quality, Grancino's violins, violas and cellos were considered superior.

Jennifer Koh is an American Violinist, born to Korean parents. She is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory as well as the Curtis Institute and was silver medalist in the 1994 Tchaikovsky Competition. Ms. Koh has performed extensively with such orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Saint Louis Symphony, and Cleveland Orchestra and is an advocate of music education for children.

Ernesto Camillo Sivori was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer. Born in Genoa, he was the only pupil of Paganini. He also studied with Restano, Giacomo Costa and Dellepiane. Like Paganini, Sivori's playing was renowned for its thrilling pyrotechnic spectacle. From 1827 Sivori began the career of a travelling virtuoso, which lasted almost without interruption until 1864. He played Mendelssohn's concerto for the first time in England in 1846, …

Violin<br>"Milanollo" 1620 Amati<br>"Dragonetti" 1706 Stradivari<br>"Rivaz-Baron Gutmann" 1707 Stradivari<br>"Dragonetti-Milanollo" 1728 Stradivari<br>"Dragonetti-Walton" 1742 Guarneri del GesùDomenico Carlo Maria Dragonetti (April 9, 1763 - April 16, 1846), was an Italian double bass virtuoso. He stayed for thirty years in his hometown and worked at the Opera Buffa, …

Nicolo Gagliano (fl. ca. 1740-1780) was an Italian violin-maker, the eldest son of Alessandro Gagliano. He made many admirable instruments; often imitated, some have been mistaken for those of Stradivari. Typical labels: " Nicolaii Gagliano fecit in Napoli 1711 Nicolaus Gagliano filius Alexandri fecit Neap. 1732"

Augustin Hadelich (born 1984, Italy) is a violinist and winner of the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. He performs on the 1683 ex-Gingold Stradivari violin Augustin Hadelich holds a diploma (summa cum laude) from the Instituto Mascagni in Livorno, Italy, and a graduate diploma from the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Joel Smirnoff.

Enrico Rocca (April 21, 1847 - June 9, 1915) was an Italian violin maker of the 19th and the 20th Centuries. Rocca was born in Turin and died in Genoa. His preferred models were Guarneri, Stradivari and Amati. Although he worked differently from his father Giuseppe Rocca, and his work takes more inspiration from Eugenio Praga, Enrico Rocca's instruments are quite appreciated today.

Desiderio Quercetani (born November 7, 1961) is a luthier specializing in the construction of baroque violins in Parma, Italy. He studied with Parma luthier Renato Scrollavezza. He has run his own workshop since 1987, and recently opened a school, Bottega di Parma, for the making of stringed instruments. He often bases his designs on those of the Cremonese masters, such as Stradivari. Quercetani is listed in the "Strings Buyer's Guide", …

Gaetano Pollastri (b 1886 - d 1960) Gaetano, Augusto's younger brother,was a professional violinist but after the first world war he devoted himself to violin making. He worked with the same company as his brother in via Castiglione that was devoted to the construction, repair and commerce of string instruments. In 1927 he received the Certificate of Honour at the contemporary violin making exhibition- competition in Cremona.

Colin Carr is a distinguished professor of cello currently at the Royal Academy of Music. Carr taught at the New England Conservatory in Boston for 16 years before taking up his current job at the Royal Academy of Music. In addition, he is also affiliated with the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He took second place in the international Rostropovich Cello Competition. Carr began playing at the age of five, and studied with Maurice Gendron.

Mischa Mischakoff (born in Proskurov, Ukraine in 1895 as Mischa Fischberg, died 1981 in Petoskey, MI) was an outstanding violinist and concertmaster for 70 years, from the age of ten until the age of eighty. He emigrated to the United States in 1921, becoming a naturalised citizen in 1927. He led the string sections of the St. Petersburg Conservatory Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Bolshoi Theater, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Symphony, …

Lev Mikhaylovich Pulver (Yiddish pronunciation: Leib Pulver, European spelling: Leo Pulver), was a Russian-Jewish musician. He was born in December, 18, 1883, in Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk) in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine), and died in 1970 in Moscow, Russia. He was an offspring of a renowned klezmorim's family. Pulver studied violin since early childhood with his father; later on, …

Leila Bronia Josefowicz (born October 20, 1977 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a classical violinist. Born into a Polish-English family, while a young child her family moved to Los Angeles, California where she started studying violin at the age of three and a half using the Suzuki method. Her father, physicist Jack Josefowicz, learned with her until "out of the mouths of babes" she told him that he wasn't very good. At five, she started formal lessons with Idel Low.

Leticia Muñoz Moreno is a Spanish violinist. She started her music education at the early age of 3 in both violin and piano with the Suzuki Method offering her first recitals when she was just 5. In 1996 She studied six years with legendary professor Zakhar Bron at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía and in Germany at Köln Musikhochschule.

German violinist Axel Strauss , equally passionate about teaching and performing, joined the Conservatory faculty in 2001. He won the Naumburg Violin Award in 1998, and in the seasons since, has performed throughout North America as recitalist and soloist with major orchestras. His concerto appearances have taken him to Germany, Japan, China, and Eastern Europe.

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William Preucil has performed in over 30 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and throughout North America. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, former principal violist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, a founding member of the Stradivari Quartet, and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Iowa, where he received its annual award for Teaching Excellence in 1992.