Salvi Harps
| NSM spa Salvi Harps |
|
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1956 |
| Seat |
Piasco , Italy
|
| management | Marco Salvi |
| Number of employees | 90 (Salvi Harps) 135 (Lyon & Healy) |
| Branch | Musical instrument making |
| Website | www.salviharps.com |
Salvi Harps is a harp manufacturer based in Piasco in Piedmont , Italy . The company is the world market leader for concert harps.
history
The father of the company's founder , Victor (Vittorio) Salvi , Rodolfo Salvi, was an Italian violin, piano and harp maker from Venice who emigrated to the USA with his wife in 1913 from the city of Viggiano in southern Italy, which is known for its musical instruments , where Victor emigrated to the USA in 1913 Born in Chicago in 1920 . Like his older siblings Alberto and Aida, he learned to play the harp and became a harpist with the United States Navy Band and later with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the NBC Symphony Orchestra during World War II .
Already during his activity as a harpist he began - initially due to a lack of material during the war - to continue the tradition of his family's instrument making, repairing harps in Chicago and making his first harp in New York in 1954 .
In 1956 he founded a harp manufacturing company in Genoa called "NSM", which stands for "nuovi strumenti musicali" (new musical instruments). In 1974 the factory moved to Piasco, a village near the city of Saluzzo , which has a long tradition in woodworking. For the strings Salvi bought the British specialist company Bow Brand, the mechanics were manufactured in Sainte Croix in Switzerland.
In 1987 Salvi took over the Chicago company Lyon & Healy, founded in 1889 and threatened with bankruptcy , which is the only other major manufacturer of concert harps today.
Victor Salvi passed away in 2015, the company will be continued by his son Marco.
Todays situation
Salvi is one of the most important producers of high quality harps, which are sold worldwide. Around 90 employees produce around 2000 harps from spruce and maple wood every year, almost half of them concert harps (double pedal harps), hook harps (harps with semitone keys) and electroacoustic harps.
The subsidiary Lyon & Healy employs around 135 people in Chicago.
museum
The company's own museum "Museo dell'arpa 'Victor Salvi'" in Piasco has housed an important collection of historical harps since 2006.
Foundation, endowment
The "Fondazione Victor Salvi" has been promoting harp playing worldwide since 2000. It organizes competitions, awards grants and composition commissions, and lends out instruments.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Margalit Fox: Victor Salvi, Who Played Harps and Made Them Too, Dies at 95 . In: The New York Times . May 22, 2015, ISSN 0362-4331 (English, nytimes.com [accessed December 29, 2017]).
- ↑ a b Meribah Knight: With Sound Investments, Harp Company Endures . In: The New York Times . November 13, 2010, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed December 29, 2017]).
- ↑ a b c Lord of the strings. In: The Economist. January 28, 2006, accessed December 29, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Ann Griffiths: Salvi, Victor. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
- ^ Victor Salvi, harp maker - obituary. In: The Daily Telegraph, May 14, 2015 (accessed May 18, 2015).