The secret of the heavenly sound of the classic masterpiece instruments made by Renaissance masters has been lost for a few centuries. Countless numbers of people attempted to solve the mystery with their own expertise and knowledge, even with the help of advanced computer science, without any success. This mystery has been finally solved by Andrea Bang and the majestic sound of Stradivari and Guarneri can now be revived on the string instruments made by him. The cultural heritage of the old masters, tainted and eventually lost by the use of artificial chemical varnishes and lacquers, has been inherited to a Korean man thanks to his lifelong effort. Andrea Bang attributes this accomplishment to ‘the result of following the divine call’, and it is well revealed in his dramatic life. In 1935, Andrea Bang was born between a Waseda-University graduate father and a Japanese mother. He took an intense training of violin when he was four years old.

At the age of 6, he learned piano and he got into cello at 12. When the World War II was over in 1945, he came back to Korea with his father. Due to some complex family problems, he was raised by a friend of his father’s. After graduating Hyehwa Elementary School in 1950, he entered Kyunggi Middle School, the most prestigious one then. When the Korean War broke out, he suffered a permanent separation from his father and became a virtual orphan. In Daegu, he was specially picked up as a junior member of Education Department of Korean Air Force for musical concerts for soldiers. When he became 17 in 1952, he performed at the General MacArther’s Headquarters in Tokyo. Seeing his unusual talent and unceasing effort to be a great violinist, a sponsor arranged with Paris Foreign Missions so that Andrea go to Paris for further music studies. In Paris, while he enjoyed much help from sponsors of European high society, he had a rare chance of studying under the contemporary masters such as Yanovsky and Mullican. Andrea had an unusual honor of acquiring a gift of a genuine Stradivari 1702 from Mullican. While he mixed with celebrities, he diligently performed at charity concerts for the disabled. At these charitable activities, he met many prominent people including Dr. Schweitzer and Pablo Piccaso. It was the moment that put Andrea into his lifelong vocation of reviving the great sound of classic masterpieces.

When Dr. Schweitzer, an excellent music theoretician, saw Andrea (then bearing the name of Michel Ang) playing a classic masterpiece violin, he expressed his regret that such masterpieces were gradually disappearing and that even the remaining ones were losing their perfect sound due to aging. He said to Andrea, “While it is good for you to play with several masterpiece instruments, why don’t you consider working to revive the sound of classis instruments?” What Dr. Schweitzer suggested to Andrea was not a small thing; it required expertise in physics, chemistry, bio-chemistry and sound science, as well as an artistic mind and talent. However, Dr. Schweitzer saw that young Andrea Bang had everything required for this gigantic task. Through friendship with Piccaso, Andrea was able to learn the mixing skills of natural pigments which played a vital role later in his development of restoring the elegance of old classical colors. Moreover, by the introduction of Dr. Schweitzer, from a famous archaeologist R. Norman of Norway, Andrea obtained valuable advice on the sources and uses of natural ingredients used for classical natural varnishes of the Renaissance era.

In search of the old route of ingredient trade used 200 to 300 years ago, he traveled extensively to Guinea, Ghana, Senegal, Gabon and other African regions and various Asian countries like India and Thailand. Excrements of wild insects, tropical tree sap, spruce cones and coffee beans were some of the many ingredients he tested for the natural varnish. After hundreds of failures on materials and mixing combinations, he finally succeeded in finding the secret. In his long and painstaking researches, he dismantled four original masterpieces (Stradivari 1802, Guarneri 1737, Amati 1679 and Ruggeri 1694) and used approximately 800 instruments for the tests.

The secret of classical masters, as Andrea found out, was to mix four to five natural ingredients. However, Andrea went a step further and developed 26 different mixing combinations of natural ingredients. As a result, the sound from Andrea Bang’s instruments is considered to be superior to the sound of many Stradivaris or Guarneris'. It was proved by many renowned violinists such as Salvatore Accardo and Victora Mullova.

Other than working on natural varnishes, Andrea developed specially-processed sound post for string instruments. Andrea’s historic achievements drew both wild praises and heated business proposals around the world. But he believed that the works of art that bear the artist’s soul are to be made and preserved as cultural heritage, rather than means of making money. That is why he was not interested in commercializing his work until recently.