Paul Fischer is welcomed by H.M. the Queen at Buckingham Palace ©BCA Film

The British guitar-maker PAUL FISCHER supposedly retired recently from guitar making, however, he is still maintaining a rather high profile as a guitar-maker.

2015 marks the 50th anniversary of death of Winston Churchill and part of the celebrations of his life have included celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. 

H.M. the Queen, patron of the Trust, very kindly offered to host a reception at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday 18 March 2015 for 300 Churchill Fellows and every Fellow attending was introduced to Her Majesty.

One of those Churchill Fellows was Paul Fischer, whose Fellowship took him to research the rainforests of Brazil, where he studied the rapidly declining precious tropical hardwoods. He uses some of the woods, such as rosewood and kingwood in his instruments. Upon returning Paul Fischer wrote a report and shared his research which was invaluable information both for the use and the preservation of these woods – by 1992, many were placed on Appendix 1 of CITES (the list of endangered species).

The film Paul Fischer, Aubade – The Last Guitar, by documentary film-maker, Henry Astor was released on DVD in 2014. The film follows Paul Fischer through the process of making a guitar, which has become the very last guitar made by him. The guitar was built for Xuefei Yang and in celebration, the composer William Lovelady wrote a work called Aubade. In a unique background view of the elements that combine to create a public performance, Henry Astor has included interviews with Xuefei Yang and Williams Lovelady, and the première performance of Aubade by Xuefei Yang at Hagley Hall.

Aubade – The Last Guitar is available via Amazon.

or contact Paul Fischer: paul@paulfischerguitars.com

© Thérèse Wassily Saba 2015