BIOGRAPHY

. . . .FRANCISCO GONZALEZ was born in Mexico in 1957. His father was a violinist in the Mexican Opera Company and also a luthier. So even before birth Francisco was already used to hearing his father play the violin, an instrument for which he feels deep admiration and affection.

. . . .Right from his first steps he touched and handled the tools and wood that surrounded him and with which he made first constructions on the ground. So from childhood the world of sound, music and musical instruments formed part of his games and hobbies. Because of the low esteem in which musicians of the time were held, his father discouraged his four children from becoming musicians, but due to the musical sensitivity and restless fingers that the young Francisco possessed, it was inevitable that he began to study an instrument, the piano. But he quickly discovered the cello and without a doubt realized that this was the instrument that he wanted to study for the rest of his life.

. . . While his father worked at home repairing and building instruments many musicians came to the house and chatted about music and instruments. So this was the world that was and continues to be Francisco’s world. Under his father’s guidance he repaired many instruments and by the age of twenty he had already made two violas and a cello.

 

 

. . . .Shortly afterwards he obtained a grant which enabled him to continue his lutherie studies in Cremona, the most important city for violins and violin makers. While he was there his life changed course dramatically. As a cello student he was recommended to study with the professor Marcal Cervera in Friburg, Germany, and as a luthier he decided to enrol in courses of Bow Construction. There followed two intense years full of hardship and sacrifices, but years in which he acquired a vast amount of knowledge and experience. He obtained there the qualification of bow maker. He worked for a while for the maestro Giovanni Lucchi from whom he learnt a truly artesanal approach of outstanding quality, and with whom he maintained a firm, enduring friendship which lasts to the present day.

. . . .In 1982 he entered a violin bow and a cello bow for the Trienale de Cremona. His cello professor encouraged him to go to Madrid to continue his studies at the professional conservatoire. While he was studying he began to work repairing and building bows. They were hard years. Little by little, he began gaining the confidence of the musicians in Madrid for his excellent work. Soon he received his first commissions for bows; these were like small beautiful children, who have now reached full maturity and who continue to grow at the hands and through the experience of Francisco.

. . . .In 1990 he became a member of the Spanish Association of Master Luthieres, which has now been replaced by SPANISH ASSOCIATION OF LUTHIERES AND PROFESSIONAL BOW MAKERS.

. . . .He has made bows for the national violin competition, “City of Soria”, which were awarded as the second prize, and a quartet of bows for the national Spanish orchestra, including two for the professional conservatoire of Madrid, as well as bows for many Spanish conservatoires. His bows have also been purchased by musicians and collectors from Italy, Spain, Taiwan, Mexico, USA and Korea. Professional musicians from many countries come to him to have their bows repaired.

. . . . Francisco Gonzalez is also deeply concerned about ecological issues. He is a member of COMURNAT (International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative) lending his full support to their initiatives for the rational use of Pernambuco wood. He is the representative of this association in Spain.

. . . . He has given master classes about the bow in the Casa Parramón in Barcelona, and numerous conferences in different Spanish conservatoires. He has published interviews and articles in the Soria daily paper, in the music magazine Doce Notas, in the daily paper Día and in the magazine Crónicas de Cuenca. He also took part in the first Spanish-French Congress of Luthiers in Madrid with a quartet of bows in 2002. These bows and the French ones served to have him accepted as a member of the ENTENTE INTERNATIONALE DES MAITRES LUTHIERS ET ARCHETIERS D’ART, being only the second Spaniard to be accepted by this association in its fifty years of existence. Through the congresses held by this organization he has met and formed excellent relationships with the most renowned international bow makers and luthiers. As well as the conferences entitled “THE BOW; JUST AN ACCESSORY?” given in Soria, Spain in 1996 as part of the City of Soria Violin Competition, and in the Professional Music Conservatoire in Salamanca in 1997 for both students and parents, Francisco Gonzalez has conducted several LUTERÏA WORKSHOPS in the Professional Music Conservatoire in La Rioja in Logroño, Spain in February, 2006, and in the Profesional Music Conservatoire " Tomás Luís de Victoria " in Avila in April 2007. More than one hundred students took part in these workshops, from complete beginners to the most advanced students, with great interest and enthusiasm and with extremely satisfactory results, both on the part of the Conservatoire and on Francisco Gonzalez’s part.

. . . .He was awarded the Diploma of Traditional Madrid Artesan in 2004 by the Chamber of Commerce and the Town Hall of Madrid, for his career of over 20 years.

. . . .As an expert in Spain he is constantly sought out for the appreciation and valuation of all kinds of bows and to repair the most complicated breaks imaginable.

 

. . . .The following are some of his clients: ONE, RTVE, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, Banda Sinfónica del Ayuntamiento, Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Mundimúsica Garijo, Hazen, Casa Parramón, Musical Serrano, Rafael Ramos, José Enrique Bouché, Salvador Escrig, Marçal Cervera, Paul Friedhof, Rafael Khrismatulin, Agustín León Ara, Jesús Angel León, Ara Malikian, Víctor Martín, Elena Nieva, Gabriel Arcángel, Rosa Maria Nuñez, Rosa Luz Moreno, Salvador Puig, Jaime Robles, Francisco Romo, Pilar Serrano, Ole Bohn, Ivry Gitlis among many others.