Sponsors

Fondazione Victor Salvi - www.victorsalvifoundation.com

The Fondazione Victor Salvi was set up in 2000 to promote the Harp by means of work that will improve knowledge of the harp and its music. It is a Non-Profit Making Organisation started in Chicago, USA, and active in Italy, the UK, France and other parts of the world.

The main work is the organisation of concerts, international harp competitions and the presentation and promotion of young harpists. Other important areas of the Foundation’s work include the broadcasting of educational music programmes and research on the harp, the commission and publication of new musical repertoires that extend the use of the instrument. The president of the Foundation is his wife Julia Salvi who shares Victor Salvi’s love for the harp and helps promote and sponsor events.

Salvi N.S.M. S.p.a www.salviharps.com

In the early 70’s, Victor Salvi , after a long search for a workshop that was suitable for the production of a delicate and complex instrument like the harp, chose the Saluzzese, the area of the old marquisate of Saluzzo, that is famous for its craftsmen who are skilled in woodworking. In 1974, when he had bought the former Wild cotton mill factory buildings, he set up the harp factory with the company name of N.S.M. which stands for “Nuovi strumenti musicali”(New Musical Instruments) to express his intention to found and build a harp using a revolutionary technique. After steady success the company has become the leader in the sector, research and development still being today the company’s hallmark. Salvi N.S.M. is organised on an industrial level, but production is still carried out by hand, ensuring the high quality of Salvi harps.

Members of the Salvi group include Lyon & Healy of Chicago and the English company Bow Brand that produces nylon strings, used for stringing the harps as well as the famous tennis racquets used at Wimbledon.

To build a harp requires the assembly and calibration of around 2000 mechanical parts and 150 parts in wood essences, left to season: from Brasilian rosewood, Canadian maple, red fir from the Val di Fiemme, the violin tree used by Stradivari. Each phase in the production undergoes strict quality controls. Each year 1500 harps are produced, 90% of which are for the foreign market. The company, specialised in the production of large concert pedal harps, Celtic instruments, practice and professional instruments has 85% of the world market.

Comunità Montana Valle Varaita www.vallevaraita.cn.it

The Valle Varaita is an area of ancient cultural traditions and is included in the area of the Occitan language that extends from these Alps to the Atlantic. It is also because of this cultural context that the skill of working wood has for centuries been combined with the love and practice of popular music. It is no coincidence that the “Salvi Harp”has established itself in an area where there is such manual skill in wood working, the company where the quality of workmanship is fundamental to the production cycle. Likewise, it is no coincidence that recently the Comunità Montana, the body responsible for area development, has started a move towards saving and developing the musical culture of its inhabitants. The common need to develop by means of culture is the basis for the strong collaboration between the Comunità Montana and the Azienda Salvi. Obviously for the Ente di valle the Museo dell’Arpa is an important part of a general policy that aims to make heavy investment in the timber sector, with the establishment of the Agenzia del Legno and the building of the Centro Servizi at Isasca, both of which can be used by sector craftsmen and industries; the creation of the Istituto Musicale di Venasca; the promotion of the “Festival Mistà”, the top quality summer event; the setting up of a network of theme museums on popular culture ranging from sun-dials, traditional furniture, costumes and buildings. In this sense the “Museo dell’Arpa” is the element that, more than any other, provides the cultural link with the area itself and its industry, making the Valle Varaita an area of excellence within the Occitan Valleys, just like that of the ancient lands of the Saluzzo marquisate.