Victor Salvi has music in his blood. The world-renowned harpist, instrument maker, and philanthropist is the youngest son of a Venetian violin maker and harp restorer and both his sister and his eldest brother were professional harpists.
Though he continues to nurture deep Italian roots, Salvi was born in Chicago in 1920, the city to which his family emigrated during World War I. Salvi travelled to Italy in 1955, both in a quest for his roots and in the search for craftsmen to join the Salvi Harps Company, founded in Genoa, but now located in Piasco, a small village in northern Italy where wood craft dates back to medieval times.
Salvi began studying harp making while serving in the US Navy in World War II. Soon thereafter he built his own harp, mindful of tradition but with a drive to create an instrument that would have a better mechanism and thus better sound. The first prototype Salvi Harp came to life in 1954, in a basement workshop in New York.
With the help of the local craftsmen of northern Italy, Salvi Harps has become one of the leading producers of the instrument in the world. The company now has several outlets—in Tokyo, London, and Paris—and today is represented in North America by Harp World, Inc. (www.harpworldinc.com).
Salvi’s professional career as harpist began with a small quartet just before World War II began. As a Navy man, he was able to play once again when he transferred to the Great Lakes naval base and joined the Naval Band, also home to legends Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller.
After the war, Salvi returned to Chicago to join the St. Louis Sinfonietta before playing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and, under Toscanini, the NBC Orchestra.
In the 1980s Salvi turned his interest toward the eldest and first harp makers in America, Lyon & Healy. He had played their harps as a young man, and now as a successful musician and businessman, he acquired the company with the intention of returning the Lyon & Healy to its old glory.
Salvi’s many awards—such as his honorary membership in the British Royal College of Music, given in 2004—recognize Salvi’s playing and instrument making. And they also honor a new chapter in his life: in 2000 the Victor Salvi Foundation (www.victorsalvifoundation.com) was created in his name, to promote the harp to a wider audience and to help young professional harp players.
As part of its mission, the foundation commissions new music for the harp, sponsors international competitions, and promotes educational and research programs that expand awareness of the instrument. The foundation also manages “Three Centuries of Harpmaking,” a unique collection of antique harps that now has a permanent home in The Victor Salvi Museum in Piasco, which opened in January.
Reprinted with permission.
