Sergio Peresson

Sergio Peresson (1913–1991) was an Italian-born violin maker.

Born in 1913 in Udine, Italy, Sergio made his first violin in 1943 before moving to Caracas, Venezuela, in 1947. There he primarily did repair work for the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra and had a modest production of new instruments. He moved to Philadelphia in 1963 and was employed by William Moennig and Son. It was under the aegis of the Moennig shop that Peresson was finally able to see and copy the best instruments. He fashioned many copies of old masters (among them the 1743 'Spalding' Guarneri del Gesù owned by concertmaster Norman Carol) and gained notoriety among players. He left Moennig in 1971 and established himself in Haddonfield, New Jersey, until his death in 1992. It is generally acknowledged that Peresson's finest instruments were crafted from about the mid 1970s to the early 1980s.

Soloists who have owned and performed on Peresson instruments include: Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Ivan Galamian, William DePasquale, Pinchas Zukerman, Norman Carol, Jaime Laredo, Eugene Fodor, Maria Bachmann, Lenuta Ciulei, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jacqueline du Pré, and Alexander Markov who performed his famous recording of Paganini's 24 Caprices on a 1970 Peresson violin.

Peresson mostly made violins and violas, but his cellos are exceptional.

Norman Carol, former concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra and owner of two Peresson violins, called him "the most outstanding maker" in the world.

From 1970, du Pré's primary performance instrument was a Peresson cello. Commissioned by her husband Daniel Barenboim in 1970, it was used in the live 1970 recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto, with Barenboim conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. After du Pré's death in 1987 the instrument passed to Alison Eldridge for a time, and is on loan from Barenboim to Kyril Zlotnikov of the Jerusalem String Quartet.

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