Instrumental encounter #4: Sandro Faïta: from alphorn to snake

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The instrumental encounters are the result of a collaboration between MEG and the Ateliers d'ethnomusicologie (ADEM). During this musical event, musicians present their instruments and their repertoire.
Sandro Faïta studied French horn and chamber music at the CNSMD in Lyon. The winner of international prizes for wind quintet and French horn, he has held solo horn positions in a number of orchestras, including the Orchestra of Italian Switzerland and the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels.
The grandson of an artisan sculptor, he was exposed to manual trades from an early age, and in 2011 chose to switch to cabinet-making and instrument-making, specialising in wooden mouthpiece instruments, the ancestors of today's brass instruments. He began by working on the alphorn, an instrument he discovered in Italian-speaking Switzerland. He researched its history, the evolution of its shape and use, and the technical constraints involved in making it. Then he decided to go one step further, drawing on his dual expertise as a musician and cabinet-maker, and combining ancestral know-how with new technologies to create a precise, reliable and modern instrument.
Following the successful marketing of his alphorn, he has continued his research, in collaboration with professional musicians, to develop new instruments such as the didgeridoo, which belongs to the Australian aboriginal culture, or the snake, which comes from baroque music and is a little 'forgotten' today.
His project is to make an 'anaconda' version of the snake.In his talk, he presents his approach to instrument making, explaining his approach with the alphorn, then with the didgeridoo and the snake.He talks about the history and heritage value of these instruments and the manufacturing processes specific to each. Finally, he explains why he is interested in them and plays a short aubade on the alphorn.