Marco Lijoi entered the world of music at the age of four through the Suzuki method and the classical guitar.
After graduating from a classical high school and completing one year of Physics at the University of Turin, he combined his passion for wood and music by attending a one-year violin-making course with master luthier Aldo Illotta in Biella.
The following year, he enrolled at the Civica Scuola di Liuteria in Milan. After four years of study under the guidance of leading Italian violin-making masters, he obtained his diploma as a Master Violinmaker.
During this period, he founded his own workshop and worked for two years with the renowned Salvi Harps company in Piasco, Italy.
The Craft
Marco Lijoi works in the tradition of the Italian classical guitar tradition — a tradition that prizes hand work, careful wood selection, and the pursuit of tonal balance across the instrument's full range. Classical guitar construction at this level requires deep knowledge of wood acoustics, the ability to read and shape individual pieces of timber rather than treating them as interchangeable, and a patience that cannot be hurried. A concert guitar typically demands several hundred hours of work from raw materials to the finished instrument.
