Craftsmanship in Crisis: What the Decline in UK Instrument Making Means for Music Education

The only degree course in violin making in the UK is under threat of closure from September 2025, and it is making headlines within the worldwide musical craft industry. The users of those instruments are also jumping into the fray in an attempt to save the instrument making courses. For many in the education sector, this may have seem a niche concern, but it signals something much broader: a deepening divide between music education and the skills needed to sustain it.

In this post, we explore what the loss of specialist craft training means for music education as a whole—and why the future of both may depend on reconnecting the two.

1. The Invisibility of the Maker

When we think of music education, we picture lessons, instruments and performances—but rarely the people who create and care for those instruments. Luthiers, bow makers, case builders and repairers, even rosin artisans (as well as their separately unique supply chains) are largely absent from the curriculum. This invisibility has consequences. Without understanding how instruments are made and maintained, students and teachers alike are left with little context for their tools, or appreciation for the skills involved in supporting them.

The decline of courses like the one at Newark means fewer chances for young people to enter these professions—even if they might be well suited to them. It also means fewer trained craftspeople available to support music departments, youth orchestras and rental schemes for growing students and adult starters alike.

2. Interdependence, Not Isolation

Craft and performance are not separate worlds. They’re symbiotic. A poorly maintained violin will frustrate any beginner. A well-set-up cello invites progress. In conservatoires, skilled repairers are essential. But the ‘river’ that supplies those skilled hands is drying up.

If we want music education to thrive, we need to nurture the entire ecosystem. That means investing in makers and restorers as much as in players and teachers. It also means helping students understand that careers in music don’t always mean performance.

3. The Value of Making for Learners

Introducing making and repair into music education can also support students’ broader development. It builds hand skills, patience and problem-solving. It encourages care for shared resources. And it provides alternative pathways for those who love music but don’t see themselves on stage.

A student might discover a talent for woodworking through shaping a bridge, or learn acoustics through soundpost adjustment. These are not just trades—they’re ways to build musical intelligence and keep our collective memory of what makes musical instruments tick.

4. Our Own Perspective

At Bridge Street Violins, we often meet customers who’ve never considered how their instrument was made. We also meet young people—often from practical backgrounds—who light up when they learn this is a real, viable career.

Our own luthier, Laurentius, began as a violin player. It was his love of the instrument itself—its form, sound and soul—that led him to study making and restoration. For him, it was a way to stay close to music while working with his hands.

Craft is not an add-on to music education or even a ‘plan-b’ if a performance career is not on the cards. It is the foundation from which everything else can exist and thrive. There is a saying, known in the instrument crafts: ‘When I was alive in the forest I was silent, having been felled now I sing with a sweet voice’. If we want future generations to inherit rich musical lives, we must make room for the people—and the skills—that make instruments sing.