Forty years ago, as a somewhat timid 18 year old, I started my training at the Newark School of Violin Making. We were the first intake in the new building, the old Westminster Bank building on Kirkgate, Newark. In those days the school was much smaller than it is now - an intake of twelve students in two out of three years, so the year I arrived there was a first year and a second year of 12 and a third year of just two. It was competitive to get a place; I believe that over 100 applied so I … [Read more...]
Archives for September 2017
Stradivari’s ‘Messiah’: BVMA conference
Last weekend I was in Oxford for a conference of the British Violin Making Association. The title of the conference was Messiah 301, focussing on one of the most famous and notorious Stradivari violins, nicknamed the Messiah, which is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The violin was made 301 years ago. By a strange coincidence, I'm currently varnishing my instrument no. 301, and this month marks 40 years since I started my training at the Newark School of Violin Making, where … [Read more...]
