The Luthier's Blueprint

In a small workshop on Via Borgognona in Cremona, Italy, master luthier Stefano Conia picks up a half-finished violin and holds it to his ear. He taps the spruce top with one knuckle and listens. After forty years of crafting instruments by hand, he can hear what the wood wants to become. He knows the density of each grain, the way this particular piece of Alpine spruce will resonate differently from every other.…