Meet Your Maker
Updated: May 15, 2019
Well here I am at last displaying my wares at the maker's day during the Strings Festival at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), Manchester in January 2019. I have been avoiding getting involved with direct selling of my violins but belatedly realized that trying to sell a new instrument through a dealership is nigh on impossible given the number of other old violins available in the same shop. I mean they are so much more seductive with their dirty faded varnish, scratches and dings, and the allure of history. Why some of them even have cracks, patches and other repairs, how sexy is that?
So on Sunday morning 13th January maestro Yuri Torchinsky, leader of the BBC Philharmonic and tutor at the RNCM, came along to my stand and played one of my violins. Unlike some of the others who had stopped by and were brave enough to play the violins in public for only a short while, he gave it a good going over. Seemingly pleased he asked one of his colleagues to listen to the violin while he played. Later on in the afternoon he came back again, his Gofriller in hand, to compare the instruments. He said mine "can compete". Dig that!!!!!!!!!!! Really made my day. Still later on the same day, a girl came along and played the same violin for about 10 seconds and decided she didn't like it. Aiyah, instant deflation. Can't please everyone.
15 February
Well this little beauty has now gone to join the collection of fine instruments in the Royal Northern College of Music. I cannot tell you how pleased I am. All I ever wanted for my creations were for them to be played and cherished by talented violinists. In a couple of hundred years from now, perhaps someone at the RNCM will Google my name and wonder who I was, what I did, and how I came to make violins. My day job used to prolong the lives of my patients - now I have achieved a kind of immortality myself, fancy that!