The two thousand twenty-two – two thousand twenty-three season marks Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda's sixth season as Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in WA D.C. In June two thousand twenty-two, his contract was extended through the two thousand twenty-six/twenty-seven season. It was recently reported Noseda has been loaning 17th-19th cent Italian string instruments his private collection to the NSO. The musicians playing the valuable instruments didn't know Noseda was the lender until this recent announcement. In his collection, Noseda has seven violins and a viola that, in total, are worth around five million dollars.

Noseda's instruments range a violin made by Francesco Ruggeri in one thousand six hundred eighty-sixth to one made by Giovanni Francesco Pressenda in one thousand eight hundred-thirtieth. His first purchase in two thousand-eleventh was a one thousand seven hundred twenty-five violin crafted by the Venetian luthier Santo Serafino. He also owns two cellos and intends to bring one to the NSO soon. After growing up in a middle-class family in Milan and developing an impressive career as a conductor, Noseda began collecting instruments over a decade ago. The idea came to donate the instruments in two thousand-tenth, when he was guest-conducting Tokyo's NHK Symphony Orchestra and noticed that many of the musicians were playing elderly Italian instruments.

The warmth of the sound struck him so much so, that it inspired him to purchase a violin and lend it to the concertmaster of the Teatro Regio Terino, which he directed at the time. "I am not saying that excellent instruments create the orchestra; the orchestra is made by grand musicians. But if you give a excellent driver a excellent Ferrari, the driver also will drive faster," Noseda told NPR's Morning Edition host Leila Fadel. He began to loan more instruments to the Teatro Regio Torino with the assistance of an Italian foundation, and in two thousand-nineteenth, he arranged for the same system to be in space for the National Symphony Orchestra. Noseda's current loan program sees that the principals of each of the orchestra's sections obtain the right of first refusal, after which other musicians can get the instruments on a rotating two-year loan.

Principal second violin Marissa Regni, for example, joined the NSO in one thousand nine hundred ninety-sixth and presently plays the violin Noseda first purchased in two thousand-eleventh, the one thousand seven hundred twenty-five violin by Serafino. “Its very touching that he wants to share them with us,” Regni told the WA Post. “It’s a gift to us, it’s a gift to the instruments, it’s a gift to the audience … People never made these instruments to sit on a shelf, they’re meant to be heard.”