Occupation(s) Luthier | ||
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Instruments Violin, Viola, Cello, Contrebass, Viola da Gamba | ||
Robert Brewer Young (born 1967) is a contemporary cello, viola and violin maker. He received traditional French training in the violinmaking studios above Carnegie Hall, closely studying and listening to the instruments of Stradivari, Guarneri, Amati, Gofriller, Guadagnini and other classical Italian luthiers... Young is now devoted to crafting instruments in the spirit of these visionaries. As a part of a group of makers, museum specialists and acousticians he is at the forefront of using 21st century science to practice and advance 17th century methods of violinmaking. He uses traditional techniques and Renaissance geometrical methods to recreate the elemental harmonic properties of classical Italian instruments.
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Young divides his working time among a village of seven people in the French Pyrenees, London, San Francisco, and Cremona.
Education
Young earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute, where he studied under Ansel Adams’ long time assistant, Pirkle Jones. He earned a Master’s degree in philosophy from The New School for Social Research in New York City, studying with Jacques Derrida for three years. He then earned an M Phil from City University of New York, doing work in the Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics advised by Graham Priest and Saul Kripke.
Young is currently doing doctoral work in logic and early Greek mathematics and is on the faculty at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fe, Switzerland as a lecturer in philosophy.
Work
Young makes instruments for established and aspiring soloists, and does museum level instrument restoration. Clients include: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, musicians from The Kirov Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Berlin Philharmonic, Harvard University, the Opera National de Paris, the Stockholm Philharmonic, the Barcelona Symphony and numerous soloists. He is also archivist for the Oberlin College group of violinmakers and a member of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers.
Charitable Work
Since the early 1990s, Young has provided violins, violas, and cellos for charitable organizations including El Sistema programs, the New York City public school system, and schools for the blind in New York and Calcutta. He also repaired instruments for Roberta Guaspari of the Harlem School for Strings, played by Meryl Streep in the film Music of the Heart. Young provided instruments for established violin programs in indigenous southwest United States communities, and secured instruments, strings, and supplies for musicians during the Siege of Sarajevo
In 2014, Young co-founded The Open String, a non-profit organization that supports musicians in need by donating quality stringed instruments to teachers and students so that they can succeed in the growing music education movement