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NEWS IN BRIEF
New foundation aims to raise knowledge of Dutch violin makers bit.ly/2NRbcSd A foundation has been set up in The Netherlands to research the lives and careers of Dutch instrument makers from 1650 onwards. The Hendrik Jacobs Foundation is named after the Amsterdam luthier (c.1629–1704) regarded as the greatest name in Dutch violin making history. The founders already claim to have found ‘new information about every relevant Dutch historical violin maker’.
End for the UK’s Endellion Quartet bit.ly/2Mz670u
On 8 February the players of the Endellion Q uartet (left) announced t heir immediate disbandment. Violinists Andrew Watkinson and Ralph de Souza, violist Garfield Jackson and cellist David Waterman originally announced that the 2019–20 season would be their last, but those concerts were cancelled because of the pandemic. In its lifetime, the quartet appeared at nearly all the major UK series and festivals, and broadcast many times on BBC radio and television.
Russian mother in court over son’s violin playing bit.ly/3bPcju2
A nine-year-old boy’s violin playing is at the centre of a court case in Russia, where neighbours claim it breaks local noise pollution laws. ‘I don’t deny that we play a lot, but it’s always within the rules,’ the boy’s mother told news website 74.ru. ‘As soon as my son picks up his violin, our neighbours call the police. We’ve been told that other residents have also complained, and that this is evidence we’re breaking the law.’
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