It’s possible that Chris Raven is the only person in the UK making baroque flutes. He turns 80 in a few months, and far from having a lifetime of making instruments behind him, he started out at 70, after decades working in IT. Yet in childhood, he loved woodwork. As he says: “You can plant a seed in a child’s mind. And the seed stays.”
Raven grew up in a musical household, in Chelmsford, Essex. His father played the organ and his mother sang in the church choir. Raven himself played the flute until he lost interest as a teenager. But he rediscovered his love of the instrument in his 40s when he won lessons at his daughter’s school fundraiser, and 20 years ago founded a flute choir where he lives in Dorking, Surrey.
