British Luthier George Stoppani has Died, Aged 75

Stoppani was also known as a gut string maker and acoustics expert

George Stoppani was born in1949 to artist parents and inherited his Italian name from his Venetian grandfather who came to London in the early 1900s. A graduate of York University, where he studied English and Related Literature, he soon turned to instrument making as his career.

Around 1977, he began an association with Northern Renaissance Instruments in Manchester where he developed an interest in historical string making. He created a substantial number of period instruments before making modern orchestral instruments as well.

He became known for his brand "Real Guts Strings," which according to its website, started as an experiment to make strings for period instruments that were historically credible. Baroque violinists Oliver Webber and Stephen Rouse joined him in this endeavor.

In addition to giving talks at the Tiverton Conference, he was a contributor to the Violin Society of America's Oberlin Acoustics Workshop and the Villefavard Acoustics workshops in France.

He worked on research projects at the Bilbao violin-making school in Spain and wrote software for modal analyses on stringed instruments, which is freely available for other violin makers.

Our condolences to Mr. Stoppani's family, friends, and colleagues.