Born in Milan in 1903, Pietro Sgarabotto received a thorough musical education thanks to his father Gaetano, who took care of his training not only as a luthier but also as a classical musician (Pietro graduated in viola first in Bologna and then at the Royal Conservatory of Parma). During his youth Pietro then alternated a career as a violist with instrument making, which he already undertook starting from the 1920s and 30s. After the crisis brought by the Second World War, he was forced to temporarily exercise other professions, and then devoted himself more continuously to violin making again from the 1950s.
His important role as a teacher should not be forgotten, first at the Parma school of violin making from 1929 to 1936, and later in the Cremona school, from 1958 to 1973, where he trained dozens of students, the best known of which is perhaps today Francesco Bissolotti. Pietro also dedicated himself during the 1930s to the drafting of a manual, the "Teorico e pratico di liuteria", which remained unpublished for a long time, but which would have been the first text of this type written in Italy, and which was fully published only in 2019.
Gifted with a quieter personality than Gaetano, Pietro's work in his best times is just as refined and aware of classical models as that of his father. In general, his instruments have more gently rounded lines, with long and delicate corners, but at the same time massive edges in their thickness. The interruptions that marked his career, and the considerable commitment devoted to teaching, make Pietro's production smaller than that of his father, and made up almost exclusively of new instruments rather than copies.
