The Kessler Collection
Dietrich Kessler was an outstanding violin maker and restorer with a special interest in the viol and its music. Throughout his long working life he collected a few exceptional viols that were used both in performance and as a source of groundbreaking research. The trust, The Kessler Collection, aims initially to raise £900,000 to buy the instruments and house them in The Royal Academy of Music, where they can continue to inform performers, researchers and makers.
THE KESSLER COLLECTION RAFFLE
The raffle draw took place at the end of the concert on the 25th January. Over 2000 thousand tickets had been bought with an income of over 10,000 pounds. All tickets were put into a linen bag and were well shaken to mix them up thoroughly.
Jane Ryan, Dietrich Kessler's widow, was asked to draw out the winning ticket with the number 1066. The ticket was bought by a member of the audience, Esha NEOGY. Esha is a music student at London Trinity college. She has very kindly written a piece about her experience which is copied below.
Many thanks for all of you who participated in a successful raffle.
From Esha Neogy:
To the Kessler Collection trust, the eight makers of the Meares copy, and all involved with the instrument raffle:
All I had in mind when I purchased the raffle tickets was to support the trust in keeping the historical viola da gamba collection together. Of course I enjoyed a brief fantasy of winning the raffle viol as well, but one never really thinks such a thing will happen. So, I am completely astonished to have won, and can't help but feel somewhat undeserving! Please accept my many, many thanks. I know I was chosen by chance, but it is still a great honour to receive this uniquely special instrument.
I also feel a new connection and responsibility to the Kessler Collection, and have been thinking about how I might possibly "give back" and be of some small amount of help. First, how to best use the instrument? I have long been an amateur viol player and will certainly include it in consort playing with many friends. I divide my time between Honolulu and London, but I think I won't take the instrument back to Hawaii, since the early music community there is very small. I became a viol student at Trinity College of Music in London this year, so the instrument will inspire my studies here - but further, I intend to make it available to professional players to perform on, so that the Kessler Collection's cause can remain in the public eye in this way.
I am an event organizer and an editor (of words, not music), and I have some experience working for registered charities, so if you should ever feel that I can be of any assistance in future projects of the trust, please call upon me! I also plan to make a further donation to the trust.
Finally, my thanks to the makers of this instrument: Pierre Bohr and Sergio Gistri (Italy), Gesina Liedmeier (Holland), Judith Kraft (France), Tilman Muthesius and Henner Harders (Germany), and Jane Julier and Marc Soubeyran (UK). What an extraordinary donation of your skill and time - an international effort that has made viol history! I would aspire to own an instrument by any one of you, and am thrilled to have one with a part of each of you in it. I too am multinational: my father was from India; my mother was from New York of Russian and Polish extraction; and I grew up in Hawaii.
With much aloha and gratitude, and all best wishes,
Esha B. Neogy
Esha B. Neogy is an event organizer and viol player who divides her time between Honolulu and London. In 2008 she became a student at Trinity College of Music in London, so she will use her new bass viol to inspire her studies. To help promote the Kessler Collection's cause, she intends to make the instrument available to professionals to perform on. (The first syllable of her name is pronounced like saying the letter A, to rhyme with "may".)
In memory of Dietrich Kessler 1929 - 2006
Dietrich Kessler was an outstanding violin and viol maker and restorer. Throughout a long career he worked closely with musicians, offering them in his inimitably modest way the benefit of his great experience and integrity, whether it was for the smallest adjustment or a major restoration. The viol and its music were always a special interest. During the course of his long working life he collected a few exceptional viols. They were not only precious to him and his wife, Jane Ryan, who frequently played them, but they also provided a source of research which proved ground-breaking.
In all, Dietrich left seven important bass viols. Four of the viols were made by English makers: John Rose c.1595, Henry Jaye 1619, Richard Meares c.1660 and Barak Norman 1693. Two of the remaining viols were made in Paris, one by Michel Collichon 1691 and the other by Claude Pierray 1709. The final viol is a Pardessus that Dietrich made himself and is a fine example of his style and craftsmanship.
As a testament to Dietrich's life's work, craftsmanship and his lifelong desire to inform people about viols, and early instruments in general, a Trust has been set up to preserve this unique collection as a single entity. The Trust, called The Kessler Collection will raise funds to buy the instruments from the estate and house them in a controlled environment within an appropriate institution. The intention is to make the collection available for the general public to admire as well as making it accessible under suitable condition to makers and musicians alike for both historical and performance-based research.