CLAUDE LEBET
LUTHIER
Claude Lebet began learning violin making at the age of twelve in the workshop of a luthier in La Chaux-de-Fonds. After studying cello at the Conservatory, he went to Cremona to train at the Scuola Internazionale di Liuteria, from which he graduated in 1979–1980. He then further honed his craft with master luthiers in Geneva, New York, and Paris, including Étienne Vatelot.
Returning to La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1984, he opened his own workshop. In 1993, he opened a branch in Rome, and in 2001 he settled there permanently with his workshop.
Claude Lebet has built instruments for many renowned musicians and ensembles, including I Musici di Roma, the Quatuor Ravel of Lyon, the Beaux Arts Trio of New York, Paul Tortelier, Arthur Grumiaux, Henryk Szeryng, and others. The musicians of the Lebet String Quartet of Rotterdam, who play on his instruments, even named their ensemble after him.
Biography
He also crafted the instruments and portrayed Andrea Amati in Gérard Corbiau’s film Saint-Germain ou la Négociation (2003), and appears in the novels by Jean Diwo: Les Violons du Roi (Denoël, 1990) and Moi, Milanollo, Fils de Stradivarius (Flammarion, 2007). He is also the central character in Les Yeux du Violon by Emiliano Marinucci (2013).
An expert in the history of violin making and in organology, he is the author of the only book dedicated to the pochette de maître à danser (dance master’s kit violin) and has published studies on the history of luthiers in both of his main regions of activity: the Republic of Neuchâtel and Rome.