This may be the most heartwarming press release of our week:
Seven violin makers will spend a weekend at Manchester Museum repairing violas and cellos for the new Olympias Recycled Orchestra programme. This new initiative from Manchester music charity Olympias provides up to 100 free instruments to young people experiencing low income on the Olympias ‘Learn to Play’ programme, raising awareness of new ways to recycle musical instruments. It is funded by Oglesby Charitable Trust’s ‘Green Grants scheme.’
In 2025, Olympias will provide musical instruments for 180 children, 50% of which have been donated by local community members. Partnering with specialist instrument makers to repair these instruments ensures that they are used and enjoyed for years to come by children who would otherwise not have access or be able to afford them, rather than contributing to growing landfill sites and wasting finite natural resources.
Jason (pictured), who is learning the cello, said: “I love how the wood looks, and the deep bellows it makes.” His 110 year-old cello has a large crack on the front which keeps opening up and is one of the high priority items for repair.
Olympias is accepting instrument donations and carrying out repairs on them throughout 2025. Donors have included people like the security guard at Longsight Library, where Olympias delivers music lessons, who donated his old violin, and readers of The Mill newspaper. Donations of violins, violas, cellos, flutes, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, trombones, french horns, euphoniums and electric keyboards can be dropped off at Olympias or picked up from locations around Manchester.
The Manchester Museum is providing its classroom for the instrument repairing weekend on 22 and 23 March. The workshop will repair Olympias’ existing stock of violins, violas and cellos, re-hair bows and convert some of the small violins to violas. Led by professional luthiers (string instrument makers), teachers and students of Newark School of Violin Making, with members of the charity ‘Luthiers sans Frontieres’ will be carrying out the repairs.
Helen Michetschläger, Manchester violin-maker and luthier said: “We should wherever possible be repairing and reusing rather than buying new, and stringed instruments can be quite high maintenance, especially in the hands of children! Being a luthier is a highly skilled profession and maintenance work on basic instruments is often not cost effective. Creating a working weekend where a group of people would blitz the instruments seemed the best way to support the Recycled Orchestra, so I approached some of my luthier friends who wanted to join in. The teachers may also find the instruments easier to tune after we’ve worked our magic; bows will have sufficient hair and the bridges will be the correct height so that strings no longer dig into tiny fingers.”
Jo Yee Cheung, Chief Executive at Olympias said: “We have been astounded by incredible energy and goodwill from individuals from across the community for The Recycled Orchestra. From the amazing instrument makers giving their time to fix up the children’s instruments, manufacturers offering discounted parts to help with repairs, and the countless donations of pre-loved instruments from members of the public. It’s amazing how many people have an old violin collecting dust in their attic and the amount of good that can come from a group of people who are willing to give a bit of time and tenderness to making these instruments come to life again. We can’t wait to put them into the hands of our young people.”
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