Francesco Ruggieri Cello

Fundación Banco Santander extended for the seventeenth time the lending out to the musician Asier Polo of the cello made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1689.

Francesco Ruggieri founded an important string instrument maker’s business in Cremona (Italy) that produced excellent instruments made with top quality wood and famed for the sweetness of their sound. Though inspired by the Amati model, Ruggieri made several changes, altering the design of the F-holes and reducing their size, making them more like the cello we know today.

Asier Polo is one of the most prominent cellists on the musical scene today. He has played as a soloist with major national and international orchestras. Moreover, he complements his playing with an intensive teaching schedule, giving classes at both the Musikene, the Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco in San Sebastián, and at the Scuola Universitaria di Musica del Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano (Switzerland).