J & A Beare partners with Liang Yi Museum for landmark Hong Kong exhibition

Fine:Tuned - Stradivari Violins and the Journey of Musical Craftsmanship runs from Sunday 19 January to Saturday 25 January 2025

This January, J & A Beare (“the acknowledged world authority on stringed instruments”, The Guardian) is partnering with Hong Kong’s Liang Yi Museum for a landmark week-long music and crafts exhibition.

Fine:Tuned – Stradivari Violins and the Journey of Musical Craftsmanship is a collaboration between the Museum, Beare’s, and Premiere Performances, the organisers behind Hong Kong’s annual Beare’s Premiere Musical Festival.

From 19th to 25th January 2025, the public exhibition, curated by luthier and J & A Beare’s Director of Scientific Research and Conservation Robert Brewer Young, will display a selection of historic violins by celebrated maker Antonio Stradivari, each worth millions in value. Alongside, further rare 18^th-century Italian and French violins, violas and cellos provided by J & A Beare are showcased together for one time only, showcasing the development of lutherie as a craft. The exhibition will also present 12 cutting-edge, high-definition, large prints of rare Stradivari violins, highlighting the minutest details of their varnish. This will be a singular opportunity to experience at close range the unsurpassed craftsmanship of these precious musical instruments, still providing an exceptional sound some 300 years after they were made.

Uniquely, the exhibition will offer a live view into the craft of violin making, with Robert Brewer Young constructing and finishing an instrument of his own on-site. In keeping with the interactive exhibition philosophy of the Museum, the instrument being made will be on open display and visitors will be encouraged to handle the wood, as it is transformed from its raw state into a playable concert instrument.

The Exhibition will culminate in a musical salon on Saturday 25th January with a recital by international soloists, featuring the violin that Robert made during his week at Liang Yi Museum.

Throughout, Liang Yi Museum will offer an outreach programme, with presentations and workshops for both adults and students throughout the week, in which visitors will be treated to a musical comparison of instruments by different makers, both old and contemporary. Robert Brewer Young will also host workshops on instruments. Students and performers are welcome to bring their own string instruments to be adjusted.

Members of J & A Beare’s team of experts will also be available to meet individually with musicians and collectors to present the instruments and to try them in the VIP room.

The collaboration between Liang Yi Museum, J & A Beare and Premiere Performances further enhances Beare’s deep connection with the city of Hong Kong, as title sponsors of Premiere Performances’ prestigious Beare’s Premiere Music Festival since 2018. The 2025 edition of the Festival runs from 13 – 22 January, featuring performances by celebrated international artists Il Pomo d’Oro, the Verona Quartet, Sitkovetsky Trio and more.

Lynn Fung, Director of Liang Yi Museum, said “I’m extremely excited for this exhibition and collaboration with J & A Beare, as it encapsulates all of the qualities that our Museum values. The fact that visitors will be able to witness the crafting of a violin from start to finish by such a renowned luthier, alongside the rare models of historical Stradivari instruments, is a perfect display of craftsmanship, heritage and design”.

Robert Brewer Young, Exhibition Curator, and Director of Scientific Research and Conservation at J & A Beare, said “To collaborate with Liang Yi Museum and Premiere Performances for an exhibition of this kind is testament to the vibrant and wide-ranging cultural scene present in Hong Kong. Liang Yi Museum’s specialism provides the perfect setting in which to illuminate violin making as a craft, and as a luthier and photographer, I am particularly excited to present not only these wonderful historic instruments, but to further highlight the details of their workmanship through the cutting-edge Stradivari prints on display”.

Andrea Fessler, Executive Director of Premiere Performances Hong Kong, said: “Premiere Performances is thrilled to be bringing together the Liang Yi Museum and our long-term collaborator J & A Beare, the Title Sponsor of the Beare’s Premiere Music Festival, to showcase the craftsmanship and mystique of rare Italian violins, as an added component of the outreach & education programme of the Festival.”