A journey of ten thousand kilometers, from Malaysia to Italy, to the roots of a story made of wood, ropes and heart: in Parma, in the old part of the city where rare crafts still exist, Andrew Nyen Wen Tan, 36, has set up his lutherie.
A house-workshop where he builds and restores ancient music instruments, real stories inlaid in wood where you can read clues to his passion for art, history and the Oltretorrente. The neighborhood where Andrew shapes dreams made strictly by hand.
“I started playing the violin at the age of 13, in Malaysia. It was music that sparked my curiosity for Italian culture, unknown to me at the time but as fascinating as oriental culture could be for Europeans in the nineteenth century”.
His, as he says (choosing precisely the words as he chooses a file), was “a question of genesis: I was wondering by which way the violin was introduced in Malaysia. The oldest violin in the world is from the first half of Sixteenth century: the same period in which the Portuguese arrived in Malaysia. The hypothesis is that the commercial exchanges between Italy and Portugal have brought this instrument to Southeast Asia “.
In 2010, the first long-desired trip to Italy, in the country of Amati, Stradivari and Guarneri, great master luthiers who have made history: “With us, in Malaysia, there is no tradition of violin making. To learn this ancient craft. I therefore decided to come to Italy. And I chose Parma attracted by the school founded by the teacher Renato Scrollavezza “.
The precious Chamber Orchestra of Maestro Scrollavezza was donated to the Municipality
The encounter with a place where history, art and beauty intertwine is love at first sight: “When I saw the headquarters, inside a castle, in the Rocca di Noceto, I was enchanted. Compared to Cremona, a lot more publicized, I preferred the school of Noceto, with an almost familiar atmosphere, in which however a very strong artistic style is preserved and handed down “.
After a first contact with the environment of the lutherie academy (which, despite its small size, attracts students from all over Europe, the Far East, Israel and the United States), the decision to prepare for entry into the school for luthiers facing first, with humility, a period of apprenticeship. For two years Andrew then worked as a shop boy in Singapore, in a restoration shop of antique instruments, becoming familiar with planes, woods and paints.
“When I returned to Parma in 2012, I was at an advantage, already having a good command of the tools: with a little more confidence, I entered the school of Maestro Scrollavezza”.
Andrew’s eyes laugh when he talks about meeting his teacher. Of humble origins, born in ’27 into a family of laborers, animated by an irredeemable passion for the voice of the violin, picked up for the first time as a child during a public performance in the town square, Scrollavezza, before becoming one of the most important master luthiers of the second half of the short century, he was a furious, anarchist, self-taught, in love to the point of burning, by bicycle, round trip, the 60 kilometers between Parma and Cremona to give an opportunity to his desire to learn art of lutherie.
In remembering him, the voice trembles, rewinding the tape of a film that tells the fortune, which cannot be reduced to size, of having met the gaze of a master: “I was one of his last pupils. I remember him as a man attentive to details. He cared for us students and taught us not only the importance of technique but also that of the spiritual harmony that must exist between the hand and the instrument you are creating “.
Among the many memories, one vibrates with a deeper sentimental vein: “Knowing that I came from afar and that I had no way of getting beautiful woods, one day Renato pulled a piece of maple out of his cellar and gave it to me. , assigning myself a task: with that wood I had to build my first violin, by myself, working at home. The result would be proof of what I had learned from his teaching “.
In the workshop of master liuatio Andrew Wen Tan – photo
From Malaysia to Parma to make fine violins and violas. She visits the laboratory of master Andrew Nyen Wen Tan, first student of the Boito conservatory and later a pupil of master Renato Scrollavezza, who transformed his great passion into a profession. Wen Tan creates prestigious musical instruments with decorations carved in wood that recall the details of the churches of the city. Read the article
Photo Marco Vasini
Today, that first piece of wood, which has become a baroque violin, “I keep it as a relic, a sign of the bond of friendship that still makes me feel the living presence of Renato”.
The chisel and file work that Andrew has refined on wood is a practice that he applies, with amused and exact seriousness, even to the body of words.
To my question (as a profane) if wood is alive, she replies with a smile: “Not really: to say that it is alive is inaccurate. Wood breathes, follows the seasons and makes its changes, almost as if it were still a tree in the woods: when there is humidity, it expands. When it is dry, it shrinks, changing its sound according to the season. It seems to remember its being an element that belongs to nature “.
On the work table, the study plan for an instrument that Andrew will present in Malta at an international competition.
On the walls, the gold medals of the competitions already won as a maker of Baroque instruments. Each of which is a unique creation, an agreement between tradition and inventiveness, technique and risk, intuition and research.
Like the viola d’amore that he shows me, built in two years of work, incorporating the architectural style of the church of the Annunziata.
On the polished wood, the rose window of the church in via D’Azeglio opens, almost a lace with a parchment core that reproduces the coat of arms of the Franciscan order. “And since the Annunziata was built at the time of the Farnese family – says Andrew in retracing the steps of an imaginative and creative itinerary that reproduces the emblems of the city on the wood – I inserted another quote in the head of the viola: the Farnese lily” .
His clients and clients reach him from all over northern Italy, some even from further afield. In the city, he is one of the very few master luthiers who, in addition to building instruments starting from the piece of wood, takes on the responsibility of restoring ancient instruments.
Among the work tools, he shows me two, still wrapped: “They are gouges. I found them on the counter of a flea market. Now nobody uses them anymore and I was able to get them cheaply”.
Among the very few luthiers who work in the city, “very important for my training were Elisa Scrollavezza, daughter of Renato, then Andrea Zanrè and Frédéric Noharet: the latter was like a father. He gave me the opportunity to practice his workshop leading me to express myself artistically “.
For Andrew, the memory of gestures seems to be vital in shaping the present: “Being under my grandmother’s sewing table, as a child, I started learning to use needle and thread. historical reenactments and period-style concerts. My mother, who worked in fashion, passed on to me the passion for creating clothes. And from my father, a tour guide, I assimilated the love for architecture. family is proud that I have found my life here – continues Andrew, who attends the Conservatory – I could not afford to study here if I did not work “.
His days are marked by much-loved commitments: “Every day I play my instruments, I practice. In the afternoon, usually, I get inspiration for new creations (or I go looking for it while walking and observing the city, its buildings , his churches). For me, violin making is prayer, meditation, which is why I dedicate myself above all to it in the evening: filing helps me reflect on the day, on how I used my time. In this way, art has always saved”.
The marbling of the wood becomes mappings of streets, churches and buildings but also veins of personal memories, which are rekindled when Andrew plays: “Every phase of my life is marked by an instrument and when I play it I find the memory of that period. Joys and pains “.
And, like a friend, each instrument is called by name: “The luthiers who studied with Scrollavezza always name their instruments: even baptizing an instrument, after it has been brought into the world, means maintaining a tradition”.
From the window, he takes out a lute inlaid like a mosaic: “The rose window reproduced here is inspired by the one found in the church of San Francesco Del Prato. What is the name of the lute? S. Francesco”.
An ancient craft, that of luthier, saved by Andrew in the form of an inlay of different times, memories, cultures and arts: “I am a foreigner who has brought Italian culture into his life. I experience this cultural inlay every day as an enrichment: Italian culture is an extra piece that completes me. I don’t think it is a coincidence that this happens here, in Oltretorrente: a mosaic of stories, voices and cultures, it is an ancient, open, not pretentious but lively and natural neighborhood like good wood. Where I feel at home “.