Save Lev's Violin: new crowdfunding campaign launches at Hay Festival
Lucy Thraves
Friday, May 28, 2021
Author Helena Attlee and Greg Lawson, violinist, composer, and conductor, are to launch a crowdfunding campaign to rescue and restore a unique violin, with a special event at Hay Festival.
Attlee was inspired to tell the story of this violin when she heard it played by Greg Lawson at a concert in Presteigne, near-Hay on-Wye.
Her book, Lev’s Violin: An Italian Adventure, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week in April 2021.
But now this violin is broken: its neck has collapsed and its body needs thorough restoration.
The crowdfunding campaign is led by Attlee, and the team includes Greg Lawson, violinist with Scotland’s leading orchestras and a member of Moishe’s Bagel, a band playing Klezmer and world music, and Dr Lev Atlas, principal viola at the Scottish Opera Orchestra, who smuggled the violin out of Russia in the 1980s.
The restoration has been facilitated by Martin Swan of Martin Swan Violins, and will be carried out by violin maker and restorer Anette Fajardo.
When it has been restored, Lev’s violin will be offered on loan to exceptional students, and to other players with projects especially suited to its particular tone. Any additional funds raised will be given to Music for All, a charity dedicated to providing instruments for schools, supporting individual musicians and community music projects.
The campaign can be found here: SAVE LEV'S VIOLIN - a Music crowdfunding project in Presteigne by Helena Attlee Ramsay (crowdfunder.co.uk)