Despite being rich and famous, legendary violinist Stephen Morris is not interested in replacing his favorite instrument with a new and improved one anytime soon. But recently he was almost forced to – until something incredible happened.
Stephen Morris is well-known for his prominent work and frequent, well-loved solos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as extensive collaborations with major acts such as U2 and Stevie Wonder.
One day after an especially exhausting day at Abbey Road Studios, he got off of the train as usual – but only after practically sleepwalking his way home did he realize that he’d forgotten his violin on the train.
Morris was beside himself. You’d think that with all of his success, he would just go replace the instrument…but this wasn’t any old violin.
His beloved violin was a 310-year-old antique; one of the few surviving instruments made by David Tecchler, a master in his trade whose name hasn’t been forgotten for centuries. And Morris has been playing this same $320,000 instrument for 15 years.
Of course, the first thing Morris did was contact the British Transport Police…but unfortunately, nothing had been returned yet. The officers even checked the security footage for him, and sadly, confirmed that another passenger had picked it up. But Morris wasn’t ready to give up yet. He really believed that he could put trust in the goodness of other people to help him reunite with his favorite instrument. So he took to social media.
After making many accounts across many different channels, pleading for help from his fans and the public to help find and return his violin, Morris got a phone call. Someone recognized the man on the train, and was willing to put them in contact.
When they finally touched base, Morris could hardly believe his luck – that the man was totally eager to return the instrument! But, Morris’ detective friend Mike Pannett said that it was easy to tell that the man had simply been scared to reach out because of Morris’ star status, worries that some hotshot lawyer would get him in more trouble than he deserved. “I knew from my experience that we weren’t dealing with a hardened criminal. We were dealing with somebody who had initially made a bit of a mistake [in picking up the violin] and had panicked,” he said.
Within 24 hours, violinist and violin were sweetly reunited.
