Rowan Armour-Brown Memorial Trust Fund

founded to encourage future violin makers

The Rowan Armour-Brown Memorial Trust Fund seeks to maintain the high standard of violin making and restoration in Britain by supporting young makers at the beginnings of their career.

Rowan was a well-respected and much loved violin maker who died in 1996. The RAB Trust Fund was set up in 1999 by friends and colleagues of Rowan who were keen to keep alive the spirit of her work.

The Trust offers support to students of violinmaking at UK colleges or those undertaking apprenticeships, in the following ways:

Offering grants to underwrite a specific task or project, to purchase wood or tools
Distributing tools and wood that have been donated to the trust
Offering workshop placements

Funding for the Trust comes from a number of sources. We gratefully acknowledge support from the following trusts: The Radcliffe Trust, Education Services and the Robinson Trust. The contents of six complete workshops have been donated to date, including in 2006 the workshop of Cyril Noble, and in 2008 the workshop of Yasuo Ichinose. We have also received smaller gifts of wood, tools and funding. On one occasion one of our trustees collected and sold the contents of the workshop of a deceased violinmaker on behalf of his wife to students at Newark. This was of benefit both to the family and to the students who were able to buy tools at advantageous rates.

The family of the late Wilfred Saunders (who was a founder member of the Trust) set up a memorial fund in his name, the proceeds of which they generously donated to the Rowan-Armour Brown Trust. This represents half of the money which funded the awards made during 2005.

The trustees of the Rowan Armour-Brown trust are:

Juliet Barker
Judith Blackwell
Paul Bowers
Rachel Douglas
Colin Garrett
Paul Gosling
Shem Mackey
Helen Michetschläger
Roger Rose

registered charity number 1102888