BEYOND THE LIMITS

Since its creation in 2001, the charity Luthiers sans Frontières has brought the tools and skills for violin making to some of the poorest countries in the world. Peter Somerford speaks to representatives of the UK and US chapters to discover its impact over the past two decades

Haitian luthier Tchoupy with his graduation certificate (above) and repairing a double bass

ALL PHOTOS JOHN M. CAHILL

When Haitian luthier Grafield Hylaris, also known as Tchoupy, started out fixing instruments over 15 years ago, he was resetting soundposts using forks and other kitchen utensils. Today, as one of the most highly skilled violin repairers in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, he has a fully equipped professional workshop, is teaching repair skills to students, has formed a lutherie association and is set to become head luthier at a dedicated school for instrument repair.

Ten years ago Natasha Sealey-Worrell was a quietly curious string student at the University of Trinidad and Tobago, who wanted to learn how to maintain her instrument and bow in a country that lacked any violin or bow workshop. Now she is the only professionally trained bow repairer in Trinidad, and has her own business offering rehairs and restorations.

Both Tchoupy and Sealey-Worrell were trained and mentored by volunteer violin makers and bow makers from the international charity Luthiers sans Frontières (Luthiers without Borders, or simply LSF). It has worked to raise the level of instrument and bow maintenance and repair in Haiti and Trinidad, and some ten other countries. Originating as a small Belgium-based non-governmental organisation in 2001, LSF aims to support music programmes and musicians by offering training missions in countries where there are no skilled repairers. And it’s not just about training – volunteers also repair instruments and bows themselves, and bring tools and supplies for equipping a basic workshop, along with donated strings, instruments, accessories, bow hair and other materials.

After volunteering with LSF Belgium, luthier and writer John Milnes helped found a British branch of the charity in 2007. Robert Cain, who taught for many years at the Newark School of Violin Making and is the current chair of LSF-UK, volunteered for one of its first missions, to Haiti in 2008, and has since been to Afghanistan, Malawi and the Philippines.

Tchoupy (far right) and friends collaborate on gluing a bass

Other missions have taken LSF-UK volunteers to Ecuador, Antigua and Uganda. After volunteering for LSF-UK missions to Haiti and Ecuador in 2010, Atlanta-based bow maker Anna Huthmaker set up a US chapter with another LSF volunteer, Minneapolis violin maker Ute Zahn, and together they have run LSF-USA missions to Trinidad and most recently Belize. The original Belgian arm of LSF has been less active in recent years, with its founder Paul Jacobs now 71 and no younger luthier as yet taking on his leadership role. But LSF-Belgium remains involved in a strings project for primary schoolchildren in Djerba, Tunisia, where it supplied and is helping to care for about 100 small violins and cellos.

LSF’s goal is to create a self-sustaining lutherie ecology, so that trainees are able to carry out maintenance and repairs themselves and teach others how to do them too. As Zahn puts it, ‘Essentially our aim is to work ourselves out of a job wherever possible.’ Achieving such sustainability often involves return missions. ‘It all depends on the need,’ says Cain. ‘We keep in touch with projects and we only go back when we see that we can strongly develop the situation.’ In the case of Haiti, which has had nine LSF missions, the last in 2019, and Trinidad, where LSF-USA ran multiple missions between 2013 and 2017, the lutherie skills and provision have reached a level where LSF support is no longer needed.

In Haiti, LSF-UK had a crucial and enduring partnership with American nonprofit BLUME Haiti, which supports and develops music programmes in the country. ‘BLUME [Building Leaders Using Music Education] has taken what we started in 2008 and established a permanent network of luthier workshops around Haiti,’ says Cain. ‘The country has had more LSF input than any other because of its ever-expanding music scene, the strong collaboration with BLUME, and the enthusiasm and dedication of the Haitian luthiers.’ BLUME Haiti founder, retired cello professor Janet Anthony, says: ‘There are several professional luthiers now in the country who are able to work at a high level. Most of these workshops are not full-time because the luthiers are also playing or teaching. Ideally every music programme would have someone who can teach the young players how to look after their instruments and who can take care of minor things like reshaping a nut or planing a fingerboard. More extensive repairs can then be done at one of three major centres: in the north, in the capital Port-au-Prince and in the south. We’re now waiting for an appropriate building to launch a school for vocational instrument repair, so we can train more repairers to a high level. Tchoupy already has a curriculum ready to go.’

‘WE KEEP IN TOUCH WITH PROJECTS AND WE ONLY GO BACK WHEN WE SEE THAT WE CAN STRONGLY DEVELOP THE SITUATION’ – ROB CAIN, LSF-UK

Open-air repair work in Trinidad

LUTHIERS SANS FRONTIÈRES

In Trinidad, two of the instrument repairers who trained with Zahn got married and opened a shop where they now do repairs and sell instruments and accessories. This, as well as Sealey-Worrell’s bow workshop, testifies to the success of the project, as well as the sustained effort to get here, as Zahn reflects: ‘I think we’ve done a lot to raise the overall level of instrument maintenance in the country. When we arrived, there was someone who had had no training at all and had just watched a lot of YouTube videos but had a lot of confidence – which is not such a great combination.’ She recalls an early mission when organisers at the University of Trinidad and Tobago were trying to find the most committed and talented students for training: ‘I had five people in front of me, and by the end of the second day four of them were complaining a lot about how hard the work was, how their hands hurt and they were getting blisters. But there was one girl who never said anything, until one morning when she came up and said to me slowly and very quietly, “I could do this all day, every day.” And I thought, “That’s my girl!” And she is the one today with the violin repair business.’

‘I THINK WE’VE DONE A LOT TO RAISE THE OVERALL LEVEL OF INSTRUMENT MAINTENANCE IN THE COUNTRY’ – UTE ZAHN, LSF-USA

Some Trinidad students have had the chance to become interns at workshops in the US

PHOTOS COURTESY LSF-USA

Creating employment is one of the long-term outcomes of LSF’s endeavours. ‘That economic component is always in the background when people reach a certain level of accomplishment,’ says Cain. ‘You’re giving them a skill that can contribute to their livelihood.’ But for the trainees who have learnt and built on those skills, their work is also about helping their community. Tchoupy says: ‘I didn’t start out repairing instruments with the intention of establishing a business, and a lot of the work I do is for kids who don’t have any money to pay for instrument repairs. But one of the reasons I want to start a school is so that lutherie can be seen as a viable profession and a way of living.’ In Trinidad, Sealey-Worrell says: ‘As word gets out about my workshop, more and more people are realising that they can have their bows repaired and restored and they don’t have to just throw them away. I’m also a member of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Trinidad and Tobago, and fellow players will come to me when they have problems with their bow, sometimes even during rehearsal.’

Covid interrupted LSF missions but in early 2020, just before the pandemic hit, Huthmaker and Zahn went to Belize for the first time, while Cain and fellow maker Sarah Beaton made a first trip to Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. ‘Nobody had ever taught lutherie skills in Malawi before,’ says Cain. ‘We brought the usual basic workshop equipment and taught four trainees. Two are now continuing with the work; something we have come to accept with LSF missions is that some of the students drop out afterwards. They live in challenging situations and life can be unpredictable, but there are always trainees who stick with it and make an impact in their communities.’

The LSF-UK team work at the Jose DePiro Centre for the Arts, Pagalanggang, on the main Philippine island of Luzon

PHOTOS LSF-UK

LSF-UK resumed missions in November 2022 with a second visit to the Philippines, after a first mission in 2018. ‘The music programme where we’d been in the small rural settlement of Pagalanggang, a three-hour drive from Manila, had taken a hit during lockdown and was just getting re-established,’ says Cain. ‘There was a backlog of instruments to be fixed and new students to be trained, as some had left the village to study elsewhere.’ To Cain’s knowledge, there is no reputable violin maker anywhere in the Philippines, and the only violin repairer in Manila died during the pandemic. ‘In a country of nearly 120 million people, there are potentially more instruments from further afield that the Pagalanggang programme could take in and repair,’ says Cain. ‘If that happens we can support them more and help them become more organised.’

LSF mission countries can be challenging places to work in, whether that’s because of poverty and lack of resources, or political instability and security concerns, or infrastructure problems such as intermittent electrical supply. The tropical climates of most destinations also bring issues: working all day in hot and humid conditions can be exhausting; delicate work has to be done with sweaty hands; and tools are at risk of going rusty if not stored and maintained carefully between missions. Volunteers quickly learn to be highly adaptable, especially as they might not have access to materials they are accustomed to. Cain in the past has used a bicycle tyre inner tube as a clamp, for example. Zahn recalls: ‘When I was in Cuba no one had heard of cling film. I wanted to soak a crack using cotton wool, and then put cling film over it. But I couldn’t find any cling film anywhere. You just have to think of a way around that.’ Huthmaker says: ‘I love the challenge of working out alternatives. For instance, when I trained, I learnt the correct way to tie the face plate on a bow. But on a mission I might not have access to the nice wax thread I’m used to using. But with some elbow grease and some duct tape I can pretty much use anything to tie that face plate on! You just have to think of how you’re going to achieve the end result and be willing to push the boundaries a little.’

Students in Haiti observe LSF-UK volunteer Pierre Picard (left) at work

‘THERE WAS A BACKLOG OF NEW STUDENTS TO BE TRAINED IN THE PHILIPPINES, AS SOME HAD LEFT THE VILLAGE TO STUDY ELSEWHERE’ – ROB CAIN, LSF-UK

A team from LSF-UK visited Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2013

A second trip to Kabul took place in 2015

LSF-UK trustee Sarah Beaton teaching in Malawi in 2020

PHOTOS COURTESY LSF-UK

Power cuts can be a common experience on missions, but Cain invented a candle-powered glue pot which he first used on a mission to Haiti just after the devastating earthquake there in 2010. And on the latest trip to the Philippines he took along a hand-cranked grinding wheel that he’d found in a secondhand tool shop, which proved both safe and effective.

In Haiti, political unrest has meant that sometimes students couldn’t get to training sessions because of roadblocks. ‘Today the music programme where Tchoupy works is in a part of Cap-Haïtien that’s fragile in terms of security,’ says Anthony. ‘He had to transfer all his luthier supplies into his house from his base at the school, because the school was too dangerous to access.’

Time is also a challenge on missions, because there is only so much that volunteers can teach in a typical two-week visit. ‘We’ve become very efficient at teaching a lot in a short time,’ says Cain. ‘It’s all about good preparation and teamwork.’ Missions typically split the students so that one group learns set-up and basic instrument maintenance with one trainer, and a second group learns bow rehairing with another trainer. Volunteers will sometimes have the students teach each other particular set-up and repair techniques, as a way of seeing how well they have learnt. On early missions it was tempting for programme organisers to get as many students in to learn as possible, for maximum benefit. Huthmaker recalls: ‘The first time I went to Trinidad, I was by myself, and they set me up in the lobby of a music school. I was surrounded by everyone playing and making noise and I was given two tables to work on and seven students and they just said, “Go!” It was great but a little chaotic. But when we went back the second year, they gave us a separate room and started honing the students down to just the few who were really serious.’ Cain has learnt to insist that student numbers are limited to about four. ‘If we teach them well, they can teach others,’ he says. ‘The last thing you want to do is to leave ten half-trained people.’

‘YOU JUST HAVE TO THINK OF HOW YOU’RE GOING TO ACHIEVE THE END RESULT AND BE WILLING TO PUSH THE BOUNDARIES A LITTLE’ – ANNA HUTHMAKER, LSF-USA

Bow maker and LSF-USA co-founder Anna Huthmaker on a mission in Cuba

PHOTOS COURTESY LSF-USA

The teaching doesn’t stop when a mission ends, as lines of communication are kept open between trainers and trainees, mostly on an informal basis. Huthmaker says: ‘With every student I tell them I have an open email and phone policy and they can call me for advice any time. And that’s one of the ways I can tell if people are doing the work.’ The university in Trinidad that hosted Zahn and Huthmaker set up a series of regular Skype sessions for students after the training blocks. ‘They’d work in front of us and show us what they’d been doing,’ says Huthmaker, ‘and we could give assignments for them to email back.’ LSF-UK also keeps up communication with students after a mission. ‘Even in places where facilities are very limited, people will often have access to the internet,’ says Cain, ‘so we can give advice and answer questions by email, WhatsApp and Skype.’ John Milnes has recently been working with professional makers to develop workshop-based training videos that LSF-UK will make available to projects for remote learning.

The most committed students have also benefited from internships organised by LSF or its project partners. Huthmaker hosted Sealey-Worrell for a series of summer internships at her shop in Atlanta, and Sealey-Worrell’s fellow Trinidadian luthiers interned with both Huthmaker and Potter Violins in Washington DC. ‘They also visited Metropolitan Music and Howard Core,’ says Huthmaker, ‘so they got to see these big wholesalers and saw how their business model worked. At Huthmakers, we talked with them about business, taxes and planning your inventory, so it was more than just about benchwork.’ Last year Sealey-Worrell furthered her learning experience through a Women in Lutherie fellowship with Philadelphia bow maker Elizabeth Vander Veer Shaak. And through BLUME Haiti’s Belgium-based NGO partner the Music Fund, Tchoupy spent several months apprenticing in Cremona with violin maker Luisa Campagnolo.

Fixing a cello during the LSF-USA mission to Belize in 2020

Up next for LSF-UK is a first mission to Kosovo this July. As for other plans, Cain says: ‘We are constantly gathering information from our projects and will respond as the need arises. We also regularly get requests which we’ll consider, and we look at how much money we have to spend on missions. We want to get out and do the training when we have the resources, but only do it when and where it’s really necessary.’ While LSF-USA has been focusing since Covid on collecting donated instruments, accessories and bows and sending them out to projects, Huthmaker says she is anxious to get back to travelling and teaching. ‘A music programme in Honduras invited us out right before Covid, and that is another place where I think we can go and make a big difference.’ Zahn is also keen to return to Belize, ‘to help that project get to a point where they are afloat by themselves, like Trinidad.’ Music programmes can be beacons of light in the poor communities they serve, and countries such as Haiti, where Anthony says music schools are still springing up despite all the odds, show that the need for skilled repairers and rehairers – and LSF’s expertise in giving them formative training – continues to be widespread.