In residency at the Maison Flottante in May 2025
Agathe Bejerano Calderon is a luthier and musician. She lives and works in Normandy, where she has her workshop for making musical instruments. A luthier for 10 years, she specializes in making and restoring violas da gamba.
Artistic practice
Agathe has been making and restoring violas da gamba and period quartet instruments in her lutherie workshop in Le Vaudreuil, Normandy, for 10 years now.
“My manufacturing process involves a creative phase of sketching patterns, curves, and technical drawings specific to each instrument, which includes choices relating to the structural balance of the viola da gamba. The challenge of my research is to include durable structural information so that my instruments will live on for centuries after I am gone, while achieving a more personal aesthetic, that of a timeless design, not freezing the viola da gamba in its status as an “early music” instrument.
During my residency at the Maison Flottante, I will be able to calmly imagine a new instrument and develop ideas for an extraordinary future design.
Biography
Born in Seine-Saint-Denis in 1994, Agathe was only three years old when her parents, both passionate musicians, placed a violin in her hands. Through her practice of this instrument, she came into contact with luthiers in Paris. At the age of 16, she met Judith Kraft, a Master of Art in viola da gamba making, which crystallized her vocation and her wonder at this extraordinary instrument. After completing an excellent training program at the Ecole Nationale de Lutherie in Mirecourt, she continued her training in various workshops with particularly high standards in Paris, Quebec City, and Montpellier, notably in the field of high-end restoration of antique instruments.
Armed with this exceptional expertise, she opened her own workshop in 2022 in Le Vaudreuil, Normandy. The Normandy light, which has inspired many painters for centuries, lends itself well to viola da gamba making. The wood comes to life, the varnish enhances it. The calm and spacious workshop allows for the serene creation of unique instruments with ever-increasing standards, in the continuous development of experimentation around acoustics and design.
Partners
The residency is supported by Seine-Eure metropolitan area and Eure Department.