Stradivari Society

Stradivari Society

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Type	Private
Industry	Music industry
Founded	Chicago, Illinois, USA
Founder	Geoffrey Fushi Mary Galvin
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois, USA
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Geoffrey Fushi, Chairman Robert Bein, Advisor John K. Becker, Curator Eduard Wulfson, Director of European Operations
Services	Pedagogy
Parent	Bein & Fushi, Inc.
Website	The Stradivari Society

The Stradivari Society is a philanthropic organization based in Chicago, Illinois, best known for its arranging deals between owners of antique string instruments such as those made by luthiers Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri, for use by talented musicians and performers. The Stradivari Society does not hold title to the instruments.

Background

The Society was founded by Geoffrey Fushi and Mary Galvin in 1985 when Galvin, wife of then-president of Motorola, Bob Galvin, was approached by Fushi and Robert Bein from Bein & Fushi Violins of Chicago, to lend the Ruby Stradivarius of 1708 that he had previously sold to her to a promising violinist, Dylana Jensen. Seeing that such rare violins were very expensive and difficult to obtain, Galvin and Fushi designed the structure and name of the society after lending another violin when Dorothy DeLay of the Juilliard School asked Fushi for a violin for her most promising student, then ten-year-old Midori. Enjoying the experience of lending such beautiful violins to those who could use them to grow and launch their careers, a string of loans followed.

Awardees include Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham, Yi-Jia Susanne Hou, Leila Josefowicz, Philippe Quint, Sarah Chang, Janine Jansen, Vadim Repin, Kristóf Baráti, Hilary Hahn, Maxim Vengerov, and Paul Coletti, all of whom have enhanced their careers playing violins the Society arranged for them to borrow.

Loan program

The Society's two dozen patrons are each given tri-annual concerts by their sponsored musician during its three-year period. Each artist is responsible for insuring the instrument, and its delivery to The Society's curator, John Becker. Inspection and service is performed exclusively by Becker three times yearly, and cannot be done by any other luthier without permission. The instrument is often purchased by the artist from its patron, with The Society acting as liaison.

Recipients

Antonio Stradivari

• Philippe Quint - Ruby, 1708
• Cecily Ward – Fleming, 1681
• Vadim Gluzman – Auer, 1689
• Rugerro Allifranchini – Fetzer, 1694
• Gil Shaham – Comtesse de Polignac, 1699
• Frank Almond – Dushkin, 1701
• Berent Korfker – King Maximilian Joseph, ca. 1702
• Stefan Milenkovich – Lyall, 1702
• Tamaki Kawakubo – La Cathédrale, 1707
• Jeff Thayer – Burstein; Bagshawe, 1708
• Chen Xi – Ruby, 1708
• Augustin Hadelich – Kiesewetter, ca. 1723
• Joshua Bell – Tom Taylor, 1732
• Janine Jansen – Barrere, 1727

Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù

• Sheryl Staples – Kartman, ca. 1720
• Yi-Jia Susanne Hou – Mary Portman, ca. 1735
• Ilya Kaler – Sennhauser, 1735
• Siqing Lu – Wieniawski, ca. 1742

House of Amati

• Daniel Roehn – Lobkowicz, Antonio & Girolamo Amati, 1617
• Yunzhi Liu – Nicolò Amati, ca. 1635-40

Gasparo da Salò

• Jonathon Moerschal – Adam, 1590 (viola)
• Beth Guterman – Gasparo da Salò, 1590 (viola)

Other

• Tom Stone Jr. – Tonge; Scheinin, Carlo Bergonzi, ca. 1733
• Jisun Yang – Nicolò Gagliano, ca. 1750
• Richard Hirschl – Ferdinando Garimberti, 1923 (cello)
• Michala Høj – Robert Chen, Matteo Goffriller, ca. 1700
• Jason Issokson – Pietro Guarneri, ca. 1679
• Yang Liu – Guarnerius, ca. 1740
• Hanbin Yoo – Giovanni Paolo Maggini, ca. 1600
• Tai Murray – Petrius Merighi, 1772
• Axel Strauss – Taylor, Giovanni Francesco Pressenda 1845
• Elena Urioste - Alessandro Gagliano, ca. 1706

See also

• Stradivarius

References

• Stradivari Society - Official website