The Pirastro Evah Pirazzi Violin Strings Celebrate their 25th Anniversary!

Learn more about their history in this interview with Pirastro's CEOs and siblings, Annette and Henning Müller-Zierach, and Pirastro's technical director Adrian Müller

The Violin Channel recently caught up with Annette Müller-Zierach, Pirastro's Managing Director, Henning Müller-Zierach, Pirastro's Managing Director, and Adrian Müller, Pirastro's Technical Director, to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of the most celebrated violin string sets in the world, the Evah Pirazzi.

This year, Pirastro is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its revered Evah Pirazzi violin string set. What do you put the phenomenal success of these strings down to? 

Annette Müller-Zierach (AMZ): When our parents Eva and Volker Müller-Zierach took over the family-run Pirastro company in 1992, they paved the way for innovations necessary for a company in the 21st century and introduced new synthetic core string lines. After introducing our most popular nylon string, Tonica, they followed its success with our Obligato strings in 1998. The Obligato strings were made with a new synthetic material exclusively developed in collaboration with our supplier and used by us. While the Obligato strings’ sound is close to the warmth and richness of gut strings, we recognized a need for a more powerful and soloistic string, which led to the development of Evah Pirazzi strings and their introduction in the year 2000.

Annette and Henning, as CEOs of the Pirastro Company, you are the 6th generation descendants of your company's founder Giorgio Pirazzi. Could you please tell us about the remarkable history of the company?

Henning Müller-Zierach (HMZ): It’s still amazing leading a company in the 6^th generation of a family. Let’s take a short look back.

Giorgio Pirazzi, a Master Italian String Maker, was the founder of the company. He moved to Offenbach in Germany around 1796 at the age of 30, where he started a small string factory in 1798. Knowing that there was a demand for a durable string with great tonal qualities, he worked with true masters like Nicolo Paganini to create a string with perfect fifths to match the already highly technical level of the renowned violin makers of the day.

His two sons, Giuseppe and Gasperro, also joined the trade, and the company was henceforth known as "Giorgio Pirazzi & Sons." In 1831, the year of the death of Giorgio Pirazzi, his younger son Gasperro Pirazzi took over running the company with a cautious enthusiasm and managed the company for over 40 years! After this long time, he handed over the string manufacturing to his son Gustav in 1875. This was the founding year of the company GUSTAV PIRAZZI & COMP. Gustav Pirazzi introduced the first pure fifth string to the music world under the name "ELITE". Around 1900, Gustav also invited a boyhood friend, Theodor Strobel, to join the firm. To help distinguish these strings from the competition, the trademark "PIRASTRO" was coined in the 1920s and registered worldwide.

The trademark name Pirastro was created referring to the two families Pirazzi and Strobel, taking the first four letters of each of their last names. In 1919, Gustav Pirazzi took over the corporate shares from Theodor Strobel, and his son Hermann joined his father in the family business. Hermann developed the internationally acclaimed EUDOXA string, which was known then as it is now, as the "Queen of Strings", possessing excellent tonal qualities.

Could you please tell us about your personal connection to the Evah Pirazzi string set and how this set came about? 

AMZ: Evah Pirazzi strings were released at Musikmesse 2000 in Frankfurt, only two years before my brother Henning and I joined the company. My father, Volker, was not only a successful business partner to my mother Eva, he is also an artist. His work is most prominently featured on the string envelope of Evah Pirazzi, which shows a drawing of our mother. Even the name of the string line, Evah Pirazzi, is a dedication to family. You might have noticed that my mother’s name, Eva Pirazzi, is spelled without an “h.”

So why is the string line spelled “Evah”? The family members’ initials form the acronym E-V-A-H. While E stands for Eva and V for Volker the last two letters A and H stand either for Eva’s parents Anny and Herrmann or for her children Annette and Henning. As our most famous string line, the “green lady” (as it is called in some Asian countries), has had a big impact on my company’s path.

Can you tell us about the materials used in the Evah Pirazzi string set and how revolutionary they were at the time? 

Adrian Müller (AM): Strictly speaking, it started with a new type of synthetic material, which at the time amounted to a technical revolution. When we were looking for a new material for treble strings for classical guitars in the early 1990s, we were confronted with this material for the first time. Initial trials with this new monofilament were very promising, but after a series of tests we concluded that for guitar strings, the material produced too many overtones and had an insufficient internal dampening factor.

Nevertheless, we found its acoustic, physical and mechanical properties so interesting that we came up with the idea of developing a multifilament based on this material to use as a synthetic core for orchestral string instruments. During the development process, we worked together with a company specializing in synthetic fibers to modify the base substance of the material so extensively that we were able to create a completely unique and exclusively engineered core material.

In combination with specially measured aluminum and silver as well as a modified string construction, our Evah Pirazzi was created, which featured a completely new type of sound, with impressive playability and a tuning stability that was unheard of at the time. Changes in temperature and humidity affected these new strings 10 times less than previously known polyamide or polyester-based synthetic strings. In this respect, it is fair to say that Evah Pirazzi was a truly groundbreaking innovation in the field of stringed instruments.

What are the particular acoustical and playability characteristics of the Evah Pirazzi string set, and what makes them so popular with string players all over the world? 

AMU: Evah Pirazzi violin strings are an excellent choice for every player looking for a complex sound with rich overtones that are based on a brilliant core tone. They have become a sort of gold standard due to their unmatched reliability, durability, and super-fast play-in time, and are favored also for their outstanding playability and exceptional dynamic response. Even when used on a wide variety of instruments, they are always capable of bringing out focused articulation. Evah Pirazzi strings are available for violin in three different gauges as well as with alternative E-Goldsteel or E-Platinum strings, so musicians can choose exactly what works best with their instruments and playing styles.

After the first introduction of the Evah Pirazzi strings for violin, the string line was completed with viola, cello, and double bass strings, and remains a popular choice for all orchestral string instruments.

From your team's experience, for which type of violins and players are they most suited?

AMU: Our Evah Pirazzi strings are used by a wide range of players. High-profile soloists rely on these strings for their often-daily concert performances and appreciate their intensity and power, while advanced students swear by them because of their reliability during periods of exams and auditions. They are not only perfectly designed for solo violinists; they are also happily played by orchestral and chamber musicians, and are often recommended for electric violins or violins equipped with piezo-pickups. The Evah Pirazzi violin string line makes high-quality strings accessible to a vast community of musicians, since it includes fractional sizes for advanced young students and even a C-string for fiddlers with 5-string violins. Due to the strings’ construction, they tend to be very forgiving towards the setup of an instrument.

What would you say are your main upcoming priorities and goals for the future of the Pirastro company?

HMZ: With a history of 227 years, we are now looking forward to many more years to come. We enjoy working together with the string-playing community and being part of their musical journey. Therefore, we offer not only strings but matching rosin as well, and for more than 10 years, our KofkerRest shoulder rests. There are many more new things coming, and we can tell you that 2025 will be an exciting year for us! We’ll keep you in the loop.

You can learn more about the strings here.