The Foundation
Since 1991 – in Basel since 2023 – we are internationally supporting professional musicians while taking care of high quality instruments (violins, violas and cellos). Therefore, the Foundation is named in honour of the most famous luthier of the Brescian school: Giovanni Paolo Maggini (1580-1632).
Our mission – what we set out to do
The goal of the Maggini Foundation is enabling young talents, and established musicians alike to have access to world class instruments in order to help with their careers.
In the last few decades, fine instruments have seen an enormous increase in value and are therefore not easily accessible to performers. At the Foundation, we strongly believe that these instruments need to be played – in combination with the right musician – and that they need to be heard for them to get the attention they deserve.
The string player’s search for a job has become increasingly difficult, since the overall level of playing is at an all time high, and the amount of professionally educated musicians is steadily on the rise. A single free spot in an orchestra can get up to several hundreds of applicants, 30 to 50 of whom will be invited for an audition. The prepared program is challenging, the audition consists of multiple rounds, and progressing to the next one is usually decided by the whole orchestra (20 to 100 musicians, depending on size). Even though orchestras are vastly different in what they want specifically, one of the criteria is crucial, regardless: the beauty of sound. Does the sound fit the orchestra? The first few seconds, the very first notes played in an audition can be critical about whether or not the candidate will pass.
Our instruments open up new worlds of sound and new possibilities for many a musician, who cannot afford to buy a world class instrument. They still might be in dire need for such an instrument, be that for an audition, to pass to the second round in an international competition or for an important CD recording.
Queen Elisabeth Competition 2024 in Brussels: Dmitry Smirnov is playing a violin from Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris ca. 1848-50, Nr. 1843 from the world renowned Segelman Trust Collection.