For the academic world there are deep problems that arise from historic artefacts that are untethered from a record of provenance, and the violin is just such an object. How do we know if a Stradivari is genuine if we can’t trace its history all the way back to the maker’s hands? How do we confidently write about objects that have survived through history without a framework of assurance, and with an academic world that is more focussed on arguments

My friend Peter Sheppard Skaerved, Viotti Lecturer in Performance Studies at the Royal Academy of Music approached me to do a joint film project funded by Research England’s Knowledge Exchange programme. I thought that would be a great idea but it would go further if we took the project to Newark School of Violin Making. It would present an opportunity to introduce the students to a couple of Strads and a couple of Amatis that I managed to scrape together,

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Violin Society of America lectures focussed around Andrea Amati and where it all begun. To contribute to the rare instruments exhibition I brought the 1572 Andrea Amati violin and a collection of books of poetry, history and classics published in Cremona during Andrea Amati’s lifetime. My lecture on Why Cremona? Is the first time I have been able to bring together the artistic and poetic traditions of Cremona into one place to understand

I’ll be at lecturing at Oxford University for the Keble College Early Music Festival on 1 March this year. This is fast developing to be a really significant part of the early music calendar in Oxford. To heckle, tickets and program are available here: https://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/events/kemf-2025/ Slightly flummoxed by the generous write-up that they have given me, but then Oxford is a world in itself, so on that basis, I’ll happily take it, along with the other violin and bow experts

With irony, chagrin and shame in equal measure, my lecture for the French Association des Luthiers & Archetiers Pour Les Development de la Facture Instrumentale was titled Life Before Brexit, a celebration of hundreds of years of co-prosperity between England and France in the violin trade. I even argued successfully that Jean Baptiste Vuillaume should be claimed as an English violin dealer – but only whilst France was in the turmoil of the Paris Commune.

Always a great pleasure to look at original instruments and consider the challenges that they present to baroque playing. A delight to engage with the students at Guildhall School of Music and Drama for an afternoon of thinking about the instruments they play.

Always a great pleasure to interact with my American colleagues. In 2020 for the Violin Society of America Conference, I talked about violin making in Northern Europe – an extension of the conference that I had organised for the BVMA in 2019.