Roberto Montagna was born in Montagnana in 1981. Son of a musician father, he also developed a passion for music and at age 11 he studied flute for three years. For reasons beyond his control, he was unable to continue his music studies. He then attended the professional school, Leonardo Da Vinci. He lived the following years experiencing life in small enterprises as a artisan mechanic. Daily he was called to take care of fundamental, constructive details and developed his mental elasticity towards the use of methods of time management.
In 2007 he made the acquaintance of an artisan carpenter and after he learned the basics of carpentry, he began the project of building a guitar for himself. He realized he had a passion for building and at this point began a personal study of bow instruments. He met Maestro Fabio Chiari in 2009 and soon became a pupil in his workshop. He followed the tracks of the master in the study and research of classical violin making. In 2014 he graduated from the Tuscan School of Violin Making where he received recognition from his research on Quality of Sound, in 2017 he also graduated in medieval instrument making.
His instruments have been exposed at Mondomusica in Cremona from 2010 to 2018, Punta Ala (Italy) in 2017 and 2018, Frankfurt on a private exhibition in 2018, Trichiana (Italy) in 2017 and 2018, at Music China in 2015 and 2018. Together a small group of colleagues wrote the book Liutai Toscani D’Oggi “L’influenza del Carattere e Della Cultura Toscani Nell’evoluzione Della Liuteria Classica e Moderna” (“The Influence of Tuscan Character And Culture In The Evolution of Modern and Classical Violin Making.”). In 2018, together with fellow masters Fabio Chiari, Francesco Algieri and Emanuele Abolaffio, he founded Liuteria Toscana.
The instruments that he magnificently creates are violins, violas and cellos using the original model of the great Venetian and Tuscan masters of the past such as Domenico Montagnana, Santo Serafino, G.B. Gabrielli as well as the Carcassi family to quote a few. He masterfully interprets their style. In his workshop, Medieval instruments are crafted. Rebecs, lutes and viellas are built from a study of frescoes, peinture and the iconography of Medieval epoch.
Woods utilized for his instruments are: Pseudoplatanus Maple, Italian Rural Maple and Spruce from Val Di Fiemme, these he prefers to personally cut whenever possible. Roberto Montagna resides in Casale di Scodosia, Italy, where he also works in his private workshop.
He was awarded in 2020 by the prestigious association Italia Medievale (Medieval Italy) in the art section.