Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands
Giovanni Paolo Di Stefano is the Curator of Musical Instruments at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Additionally, since 2008, he has been teaching the History of Musical Instruments at the University of Palermo, Italy. Born in 1979, he graduated with honors in Art, Music, and Drama Studies from the University of Palermo. In 2007, he earned his Ph.D. in “History and Analysis of Musical Cultures” from the University of Rome “La Sapienza,” focusing on the diffusion of the Tangentenflügel and similar pianos throughout Europe. From 2008 to 2012, Di Stefano held a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Palermo, where he conducted research on Southern Italian stringed instrument makers. He also taught the History of Musical Instruments at the University of Florence from 2013 to 2014. In January 2014, he received the Italian National Scientific Habilitation as an Associate Professor of Musicology and History of Music. He has authored one book, edited several miscellanies, and contributed entries to encyclopedias such as The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments and Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani. Moreover, his scholarly work includes essays in prestigious international journals, including Early Music, The Galpin Society Journal, Musique Images Instruments, and the Journal of the Violin Society of America. He is an Advisory Board Member of ICOM MUSIC, the International Committee of Music Museums. He serves as the coordinator for the International Directory of Musical Instrument Collections project, the international database of museums and collections of musical instruments.
Since 2009 he has been teaching History of wood, brass, stringed, plucked, keyboard and percussion instruments, History and Technology of Musical Instruments, Organology, History of organ making and History of violin making at the State Conservatory of Music in Palermo