Violin dealers seek institutional investors
OrchestrasMessage from the current owner (pictured) of the famed violin dealership J&A Beare:
I am delighted to announce today the formation of our new Global Advisory Board. It launches a significant new era in the 130-year history of J & A Beare and will help us reach a new class of institutional investors.
As a company we continue to be committed to the world-leading service we offer our long-standing and prospective clients. We continue to strive to develop the market at all levels and I am particularly proud of our recent achievements here.
The press release below outlining the exciting opportunities unlocked by the new Board represents just one of several new strands of work that, together, expand the service and assistance we provide to investors at all levels, as well as for musicians from across the world.
Steven Smith
Owner and Managing Director
J & A Beare
Beares? They are not for the professional musician! Their snobbish attitude to tutti players is extraordinary – one of the salesmen, who I’ll refrain from naming, was particularly awful. Stating ” you’re in an orchestra, why do you require an Italian instrument?” As a result, many of us found alternative luthiers!
Let’s hope it’s a new era, but for my long career, Beares was definitely not considered.
Good point, well made.
Most of the strings in the Philadelphia orchestra are Italian instruments…………….
Dear Eudoxa,
We know that in the 20th century Beare’s had a slightly elitist reputation, and are sorry to hear that your past experience wasn’t a good one – our current leadership team has worked hard to actively make all musicians feel welcome, and we have fantastic instruments across all prices ranges, with guidance from a lovely team of professionals that makes everyone feel at home.
Our chamber music programme provides coaching for young musicians from all backgrounds, and we facilitate many loans of instruments to musicians from our international community of benefactors. As a result, we have now earned a status as the shop of choice for many musicians from all of London’s orchestras, as well as freelancers and musicians from further afield.
We would love to welcome you to see what modern Beare’s is like – we have an open day on 14 December, 12-8pm, for musicians across London, offering free adjustments plus mulled wine and mince pies alongside behind the scenes tours of our workshops. We hope to see you there!
In the 20th century Beare’s offered a proper service, certainly never afraid of profitmaking but not driven by the unprincipled and absurd greed that now characterises it, in the same way it sadly does most international dealerships.
I was a director of Beare’s from 1998 until 2021. I strongly suspect that the comment about orchestral musicians that Eudoxa refers to was made over twenty-five years ago and not by us! Since then, Steven Smith and I tried very hard to make Beare’s a company where all musicians are welcome. Both of us spent a good deal of our youth as ‘tutti’ (Eudoxa’s word, not mine) musicians working with ASMF, LSO, BBCSO, LFO, ECO, COE and others so it is equally upsetting for us to hear that such derogatory language was aimed at our friends and colleagues – and indeed ourselves.
Many professional musicians have happily purchased instruments from us in Britain as well as Europe and beyond. And I know that they are as welcome to try an Italian instrument as the most well-known soloists. In fact, I hate the expression ‘tutti musician’ as I have known so many wonderful players sitting in a so called ‘tutti’ position who are fine enough players to be standing in front of the orchestra playing the concerto.
Purchase a contemporary instrument. They work better, sound better, haven’t been doctored by many, in most cases clumsy, hands and one can cultivate a personal relationship with the instrument and luthier far better than with, sadly now, a financial tool. People who believe in the ‘magic of old’ also have pockets filled with good luck knick knacks, irrational habits and in a lot of cases magic beans.
I always thought those 1890s era German instruments were kind of a heyday and sound pretty good without being to pricey. But as the name suggests I’m no violinist.
Try one of the new carbon fiber instruments. That ought to cheese off the snobby dealers.
I wonder if there are any remaining Luthiers in the industry who can trace their pedagogical lineage to Emil Herrmann.
Ah Florian! You’re one of the good guys in the profession.