Ioan Gramatic

I was born in Bucharest, Romania. After finishing my education as a violinist in Bucharest (Octavian Ratiu and Stefan Gheorghiu – Ciprian Porumbescu Music Academy) I continued my studies in Switzerland (Anne Bauer, Pierre Amoyal, Karen Turpie). Significant impulses as a musician and person I received from Igor Bezrodny (Academy of Music Moscow and Helsinki).

More rewarding moments were meeting the great artists and pedagogues Paul Badura Skoda, Igor Ozim, Sylvia Rosenberg, Franco Gulli, Ana Chumachenko, and Detlef Hahn.

As an award winner in national and international contests I am active as a soloist, instrumentalist and concertmaster (in orchestras such as Sinfonietta Bern, Neuchatel Symphonic Orchestra, Neuchatel Chamber Orchestra, Zürich String Soloists, and Zürich Symphonic Orchestra). For more than 10 years this operation has been completed with apprenticeships in music institutions in Switzerland as well as the establishment and conducting of several youth orchestras.

My passion for violin making and music instruments I have shared with the violin maker Philippe Girardin of Neuchatel through a very intensive and long-standing cooperation and research in the field of sound- and quality making string instruments. More and more I have accomplished my knowledge. During an international fair in 1993 I got the opportunity to play and present to the audience 8 Stradivarius violins. This great experience was certainly one of the triggers for my passion in instrument making and sound quality research.

Throughout a very intensive engagement in these fields and lots of domestic and international trips to various violin makers, we finally made the decision to establish our own company.

I live together with my wife Heidi Gramatic and our three children in Winterthur.