Emil Lupač

About

Emil Lupač was born in 1935 in Horní Myslová near Telč. At school he already played the violin and clarinet with success, and his love of music brought him to Luby u Chebu, where he trained at the violin making school under masters Josef Vávra, Josef Pötzl and Jiří Mrkvička. For his exceptional talent he was chosen for a two-year advanced course in which Josef Pötzl introduced him to the secrets of individual instrument making. After his military service, during which he played in the army wind band, he worked at the Cremona factory and completed a four-year course for future master violin makers under Josef Vávra and Wilibald Wilfer.

Since 1972 he has worked independently in his own workshop and over his career has made more than 400 master violins, violas and cellos on his own model, based on the instruments of Stradivari and Guarneri. In the 1980s he twice led master-school courses, training many of today’s masters, and from 1989 to 1993 he was a workshop instructor at the violin making school in Luby.

He received diplomas at the Henryk Wieniawski competitions in Poznań (1962, 1967, 1977, 1981), in Italy (1976, 1979) and in the USA (1978), and twice served on the jury of the international competition in Hradec Králové. He has been a member of the Circle of Czech Master Violinmakers since 1975, and in 1985 he was appointed an expert of the National Collection of Musical Instruments. Today he works in the workshop with his son-in-law Tomáš Skála.