Benedict Cruft was appointed Dean of the School of Music at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in September 2003, as successor to the distinguished oboist Anthony Camden, who had been the Dean since 1993. Benedict Cruft has been performing the set of six masterpieces for unaccompanied violin by J.S.Bach since 1987 and has played the three Sonatas and three Partias as a pair of concerts over 75 times. He has played them in France, Hongkong, Macau, China and Vietnam, as well as in England and Wales, and has performed the set at the Brighton Festival every year since 1989. He usually plays them over two concerts on consecutive evenings in the order of E major Partia, A minor Sonata, D minor Partia for the first concert, and G minor Sonata, B minor Partia, C major Sonata for the second concert, the same order that is used on the CDs. Playing with the harpsichordist Robert Aldwinckle, Benedict Cruft has also given many performances of J.S. Bach's six Sonatas for harpsichord and violin, using an English violin by Edward Heesom from around 1750, which is in baroque set-up with its original neck. This violin belonged to Benedict's great-grandfather John Cruft, who, as a viola player, was one of the founding members of the London Symphony Orchestra. John's son Eugene Cruft was one of the best-known double-bass players in Britain for most of the 20th century, and Benedict's father John has had a varied career as an oboist, as manager of the London Symphony Orchestra, and as the Music Director of the Arts Council of Great Britain. As there were a few previous generations who were also musicians, Benedict is the sixth generation Cruft to be a London based professional musician. Tononi Records publishes the recording Benedict Cruft made in 1998 in Binham Priory of Bach's works for solo violin. Photographs by Graham Brandon