Alexandr Švýcarský

About

Alexandr Švýcarský was born in Mladá Boleslav in 1973 and comes from the Vávra family, the most widely branched Czech violin making dynasty. After violin making school he spent two years in the workshop of masters Vladimír and Tomáš Pilař in Hradec Králové. In 1999 he went for another two years to the restorer Florian Leonhard in London, where under his guidance he restored rare instruments of the old Italian masters and made copies of them. He says that without the originals that passed through his hands he could not make new instruments whose sound stands comparison with old ones.

He makes violins, violas and cellos inspired by Stradivari, Guarneri del Gesù, Guadagnini, Storioni, Landolfi and Grancino. In 2000 Josef Suk bought one of his violins; his instruments are also played by Vladimír Kroupa (Epoque Quartet, Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra), Markéta Vokáčová (Czech Philharmonic), Adriana Voráčková (Czech National Symphony Orchestra), Pavel Verner (Apollon Quartet), Martin Houdek (Ševčík Quartet) and Jakob Diblík (Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen).

At the 1993 Prague International Violin Making Competition he won 2nd prize and the Tokyo Violin Making School award for the highest-rated workmanship; at the Henryk Wieniawski competition in Poznań he received a gold medal for the best workmanship, and in 2001 the Italian Violin Makers’ Association prize for the best varnish there. He has also competed at the Antonio Stradivari Triennale in Cremona.