Buying a cello
I consider my cello as my voice. Being able to expand my sensibiliy with an instrument like this allows me express intentions that I never imagined being able to feel.
Music is a language that allows one to share with the audience and other musicians strong feelings that one cannot express in words. My role as an artist is to contribute to the sharing of music by offering various audiences means to experience the expressive richness of this language.
In recent years, I have started to feel expressively limited by the instrument I was playing. It was a very powerful, homogeneous and brilliant instrument which allowed me to evolve at the CNSM in Paris, in different competitions and international scenes.
After much research throughout Europe and the United States, I had a real crush on the warm, round, and noble sound of this Italian cello made by Rugieri in the beginning of the 18th century.
This cello
The study of the grain of the wood allows to date with great precision the date of cutting of the tree which was used to build this instrument. The spruce was cut in 1685 and the construction is typical of the Rugieri workshop in Cremona. Nice coincidence, the same tree has also allowed the construction of a violin by Andrea Guarneri. This instrument therefore predates a generation in the heyday of Stradivarius who established the standards of violin making.
I picked up this instrument in London and thanks to the generosity and perseverance of Thomas Wei at Florian Leonhard, I have been playing it daily for six months now.
Instrument loan
Why not try to be lent an instrument rather than bet my life on this acquisition, will you say.
First, the system of foundations lending instruments to promising young artists is poorly developed in France. It begins to appear thanks to Raphaël Pidoux and Talents & Violoncelles’s hard work but remains anecdotal in comparison with the German, Russian, Asian, American, aso. systems. While playing Haydn’s 2nd Concerto in the semi-final of the Münich ARD competition, I had the funny surprise to find myself facing five candidates playing beautifully on exceptional instruments, and obviously on loan. It was for sure a serious disadvantage.
Second, a loan remains a loan. This therefore implies having to return the instrument to its owner at a time which is not necessarily chosen. The relationship I develop with my instrument is very human, it is my best friend. Not owning your instrument means being prepared to a painful loss.
Finally, certainly the most important reason is that the choice of a “voice” is very intimate and personal. It took me years to find the cello that suited the sound I imagined. A foundation will in the best of cases leave the choice between two or three instruments which will never be 100% suitable for everyone.
© Copyright photo Jérémy Garbarg
Support me in this project
To have the incredible chance to play on such a piece of history has a very high cost for a young artist at the end of studies.
Thanks to the BPCE Group, the Banque Populaire Foundation which I am a laureate, and very generous patrons, I was able to benefit from advantageous conditions in obtaining a loan over twenty years, to pay half the price of the instrument. Then, thanks to the support of the luthier Florian Leonhard Fine Violins Ltd, I got the opportunity to pay the second half in 10 years. This leaves me time to see how this cello let me evolve in the musical world.
However, it remains a very important and difficult life choice.
In the past, to support an artist you particularly liked, the most obvious gesture was to buy his/her last CD and go and listen to him/her in concert. Today we belong to a time when music flourishes on all streaming platforms and artists unfortunately only profit in a very tiny way from the support of their audience.
Through this crowdfunding, I am offering you an alternative that allows you to participate in the process of helping a young musician to acquire such a precious instrument, and to ensure that this piece of art history ends up in careful and talented hands.
Thank you in advance.
Donation :
- Figuring in the list of patrons
- Letter of thanks
- Access to exclusive media content
- Signed Digital Album
- Concerts invitations
- Private Concert
Donation :
- Figuring in the list of patrons
- Letter of thanks
- Access to exclusive media content
- Signed Digital Album
- Concerts invitations
- Private Concert
Donation :
- Figuring in the list of patrons
- Letter of thanks
- Access to exclusive media content
- Signed Digital Album
- Concerts invitations
- Private Concert
Donation :
- Figuring in the list of patrons
- Letter of thanks
- Access to exclusive media content
- Signed Digital Album
- Concerts invitations
- Private Concert
Donation :
- Figuring in the list of patrons
- Letter of thanks
- Access to exclusive media content
- Signed Digital Album
- Concerts invitations
- Private Concert
Donation :
- Figuring in the list of patrons
- Letter of thanks
- Access to exclusive media content
- Signed Digital Album
- Concerts invitations
- Private Concert
MERCI !
- 4 anonymous contributors
- Monique Bantigny
- Jean-Claude & Françoise Lehmann
- Monique & Robin Ganellin
- Giacomo Cataldo
- Christine et Etienne Athurion