Fiddlesticks

Sour notes at the Royal Academy of Music. The weekend before Easter we welcomed guests Shinobu & Risa Sakamoto from the Atelier Sakamoto in Cremona, where they make violins in what I understand is the Silicon Valley of violin making. The Sakamotos were in town for the International Violin Festival, where they had entries in the 1st International BVMA Violin and Bow Making Competition.

This competition, a first for the British Violin Making Association, boasted several innovations. One was that instruments would be judged on their sound as well as on their appearance and construction, however surprising that might seem to us outsiders. Another was that visitors to the exhibition would have an opportunity to play the instruments. Violins such as these are valuable works of craft, so they were to be played "in practice rooms" under "strict supervision" of BVMA staff.

The quotes above are from the BVMA competition rules. Astonishingly, the BVMA appears not to have observed them. Members of the public were free to wander the exhibition hall, picking up violins and bows at will, observed from the corners of the hall by the organisers. Our guests told us that their and other exhibitors' instruments suffered minor damage requiring repairs before the instruments were again fit for sale. It seems to be a tribute to the visitors, not the BVMA, that no more serious damage was done.

Despite their limited English, the Sakamotos planned to discuss these and related issues with the organisers when they collected their instruments. Alarmingly, they were unable to do this at the scheduled time: the organisers weren't there. With a flight to catch the next morning, our guests appealed to us for help and assisted by the security staff we placed calls to the Academy's principal Curtis Price and other staff. 2-3 hours later we recovered the instruments and spoke to the organisers. I pointed out that by not having the instruments ready for collection, they had kept our guests waiing over two hours. "So what?" came the reply. One becomes used to dealing with people who value their time and respect others'; it's hard to know what to say to someone who doesn't.

We eventually established a minimum of civility and our guests were able to express their dissatisfaction, but without the experience of being taken seriously. The BVMA team repeatedly took comfort from recollecting that no one else had complained. Well, someone always has to be first. Will this irrelevant and discourteous remark always greet them?

Our guests got their instruments back, caught their flight and have repaired the damage to their instruments. They tell me that a number of ateliers in the Cremona region are writing to the BVMA. I wrote the next day to the chairman of the BVMA, with a copy to Professor Price, expressing my dismay at the way our guests were treated, and saying I hoped eventually to hear they have received a satisfactory reply to their complaint.

I've delayed posting here, but ten days later have seen neither acknowledgement nor reply. No doubt the Easter holiday has something to do with it. I hope to report a satisfactory conclusion soon, when I will place a link to it here.
» Apology from Prof. Price
» Conclusion (nothing yet from BVMA)