Last year, professional violinist Morven Bryce was on tour with award winning folk artist Jon Borden when she realised one day her violin was missing from the tour bus.
The bus driver informed her that an alarm went off the night before, informing him a luggage door had opened unexpectedly.
Bryce assumed the violin had fallen out and onto the road, but after she “scoured the local area in a cab hunting for a fallen violin”, she turned to social media:
Two months later, she received a message from Edmonton Cash Converters manager Richard Newman, who had bought the violin and two bows from two men for just £35.
Noticing the superior build quality, Newman examined the instrument further and discovered the name “Dilworth” on the violin, realising later that Richard Dilworth is one of the world’s most respected luthiers who works on instruments worth tens of thousands of pounds.
After acquiring her details from a police report, Newman reached out to Bryce informing her: “I may have your violin!”
The next day, Bryce was reunited with her instrument.
“My John Dilworth violin is so special to me,” she said.
“It has led the Tippet Quartet, led the Edinburgh Quartet, led the RPO, BBC Concert Orchestra and London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, led The Sound of Music in London’s West End, played on countless Hollywood film scores and countless pop tracks, played live on BBC Radio2, Radio 3, and Radio4,” Bryce told The Strad.
“Throughout my varied career people have always needed to ask me what my violin is… I get comments about the warmth and depth of its tone and the clarity of its projection.”
See! There are good people in the world! Bravo @cashconverters for helping reunite this precious #violin with it's owner. https://t.co/CCfvfMPY4u @TheStradMag #MorvenBryce
— Orbiter (@musicalorbiter) January 12, 2018
Kirsty Lang, @boden_jon, Morven Bryce, Helen Bell and Lucy Revis about to perform on @BBCFrontRow. pic.twitter.com/RmGULQuuJZ
— Julian May (@julian_may) October 11, 2017
