BIOGRAPHY
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FRANCISCO GONZALEZ was born in Mexico City in 1957. His father was a violinist in the Mexican National Opera Company and also a luthier. Thus, 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. Ever since 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. 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 (Italy), the most important city for violins and violin makers in the world. While he was there his life changed course dramatically. As a cello student he was recommended to study with Professor Marçal Cervera in Freiburg, Germany, and as a luthier he decided to enrol in courses of Bow Making. Two years followed full of hardship and sacrifice, 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 with his teacher, Maestro Giovanni Lucchi, from whom he learnt a truly artisanal approach of outstanding quality, with whom he established 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 Spain to continue his studies at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid. While he was studying there he began to work repairing and building bows. Those were hard years, but slowly yet continuously he began gaining the confidence of the musicians in Madrid for his excellent work. Soon he received his first commissions for bows; these pieces 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 Asociación Española de Maestros Luthiers (Spanish Association of Master Luthieres), which has now been replaced by the Asociación Española de Luthiers y Arqueteros profesionales, AELAP (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 Orquesta Nacional de España (National Orchestra of Spain), including two for the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de 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 Madrid to have their bows repaired by him.
. . . . 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 Diario de 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.
Since 2006 he has conducted workshops on bow and string instruments making and maintenance in a number of conservatories in many Spanish provinces, with most enthusiastic responses from both participants and organizers.
In February 2008 offered a lecture on bow and string instruments making and maintenance at the Colegio Mayor “Loyola” in Madrid, addressed to university students.
In July 2009 he was invited to conduct several workshops aimed to children and youth audiences within the Orchestra Meeting at Sigüenza (Guadalajara), organized by the Fundación Orquesta Sinfónica Chamartín under the directorship of Silvia Sanz Torres.
Next to the Stradivarius violin donated by Sarasate, at the Museo de Instrumentos of the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, there is exposed a violin bow made by Francisco González, purchased along with one of his viola bow by this conservatory in 1998.
In addition to the lectures titled “The bow: Just and 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 LUTHIERIE WORKSHOPS at 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 conservatory and on Francisco Gonzalez’s part.
In December 2004 he was awarded the Diploma de Artesano Madrileño Tradicional (Traditional Madrid Artesan) by the Madrid Chamber of Commerce and by the Madrid Town Hall in recognition for his career of over 20 years in the city. In November of 2007 he received the Carta de Empresa Artesana de la Comunidad de Madrid, and the next month was Finalist in the Premio Nacional de Artesanía, awarded by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce.
. . . .As an expert in Spain he is continuously sought out for the appreciation and valuation of all kinds of bows and to repair the most complicated breaks imaginable. In 2007 and 2008 he has served in the Commission of Experts of the Instituto Nacional de Cualificaciones (INCUAL), dependent on the General Directorate of Education, Professional Training, and Educative Innovation of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, aimed to standardize the professional activities of luthiers, bow makers, and guitar makers.