The Galway Cello

What a beauty! Take a look at the Claddagh scroll. Have you ever seen anything like it?

The Galway Cello is one of the most exciting and unique aspects of CELLISSIMO. To include one of the main themes of Galway 2020, landscape, and taking their cue from an original concept by Philip Fogarty, Music for Galway has commissioned a new instrument to be fashioned from timbers grown in Co. Galway. The Galway Cello has been made by Kuros Torkzadeh, a distinguished luthier who lived and worked in Galway for over two decades before moving to Co. Wicklow.

Kuros Torkzadeh trained in his native Germany and in the UK and specialises in the making and restoring of violins and cellos. He brings a wealth of experience and a passion for his craft and combines it with his deep love of the West of Ireland

During his training Kuros was given the opportunity to make a plaster cast of the ‘Gore-Booth Cello’, an original Stradivarius instrument forma b, which belonged to Sir George Gore-Booth, a keen amateur cellist himself, and which quite likely resided in Lissadell House, Co. Sligo. The Galway Cello is thus built on the footprint of this original instrument from 1710, combining Italian design/technology with Galway materials.