Gulli named to Starling Chair

Franco Gulli, Distinguished Professor of music at IUB, will fill a chair created as a result of the faculty endowment matching program. He holds the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair in Violin Studies which is the first fully funded endowed chair at the School of Music.

The chair was established in 1996 with a $1.5 million gift from the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation which supports classical violin music.

"The School of Music is deeply honored to be the recipient of the most generously endowed chair in the university," said Charles Webb, dean of the school. "Franco Gulli, one of the world's most distinguished and respected violinists, is the ideal occupant of this prestigious position."

The appropriateness of Gulli's selection for the new chair was recently emphasized by the American String Teacher Association which named Gulli the "Artist Teacher of the Year."

Born in Italy and educated there and in Switzerland, Gulli came to IU in 1972.

The late Distinguished Professor of Music Josef Gingold, who had first heard Gulli play the violin on the radio, was eager to have him join the School of Music faculty. Gingold's judgment was, of course, correct, and Gulli is now one of the most respected teachers in this country,

Gulli has performed with major orchestras and festivals around the world. Before coming to IU, he taught at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and the Conservatory of Music at Lucerne, Switzerland.

In 1959, he premiered the Fifth Violin Concerto of Niccolo Paganini, which had been recently discovered. His premiere recording of this long lost and extremely difficult composition established Gulli with the large audience for recorded music as a violinist who plays with intense feeling and flair, together with impeccable precision.

Gulli has recorded extensively for several major companies and has used Paganini's own Guarnerius violin for performances and recordings.

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