When the Trust’s Founder Dr Robert Anderson died in 2015 he left behind a wonderful legacy: of numerous articles, reviews and books on music, Egyptology and archaeology; of the hundreds of students and others he taught or mentored himself; and of the many more who have been supported by his Trust from its foundation in 1988 down to the present day.

Dr Anderson at Deir el-Bahri, Egypt

Robert also left all his possessions to the charity, including, most importantly, two houses in London which are now used to accommodate students and scholars from overseas. He also left behind a very substantial collection of books which line the walls of the rooms in his former home on Hornton Street in Kensington.

Part of Dr Anderson’s Egyptological library in his former home in Kensington

Some of these books are rare and fragile, most notably Robert’s copy of the second edition of the Description de l’Égypte, the monumental survey of Egypt’s natural environment and its buildings both modern and, most importantly for Robert, ancient.

Title page of one of the volumes formerly in Dr Anderson’s collection

Robert had a particular interest in the Description and the Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt in 1798 from which it arose, and he wrote two books on the subject himself: Egypt in 1800, co-authored with Ibrahim Fawzy (1987), and The French in Egypt (forthcoming). He explained his motivation for writing the second of these as follows:

“It was a memorable occasion when, on my way to the British Museum, I looked in at Bernard Weinreb’s bookshop on the corner of Gower Street and Great Russell Street and found a copy of the Description de l’Égypte. It was the second edition, published between 1821 and 1830 by Charles Panckoucke. I reserved the copy at once and, after urgent consultation with my finances, decided to buy it. The 11 folio volumes, five of them devoted to antiquities, gradually became too heavy for me to lift. Among the 24 text volumes, nine concerned with ancient Egypt, there are still many uncut pages. The plates had given me so much pleasure over the years that it seemed right I should attempt to give some impression of the original French text.”

Some of the plates volumes of the Description while still on the shelves at Hornton Street

For many years we have felt that the volumes lent a prestige to the small Egyptological library at Hornton Street. However, they have been kept in inadequate conditions, stored upright on open shelves in a room which has mostly been used as a bedroom. Being so rare and fragile, unwieldy and inaccessible, it has been impossible for any of our visiting Egyptologists to use them, much as they might have admired them. The Description is readily available online (e.g. via the Library of Congress, here) so consulting the originals is unnecessary.

The Trustees recognised that such important items should be looked after more properly, but did not feel able to commit the Trust’s limited resources for this purpose as it falls outside its remit to support talented young people. Instead the volumes are now to be sold at auction by Sotheby’s, and the proceeds will be put towards the Trust’s programme of charitable activities.

The auction, ‘Books, Manuscripts & Music, from Medieval to Modern’ will be conducted online. It opens for bidding on Thursday 25 June at 1pm and closes on 9 July.

The entry for the Description is here. In addition three further titles of similar age and importance from Dr Anderson’s collection are also offered for sale as follows:

Lepsius, Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien
Robert Adam, Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian
Robert Wood, Ruins of Palmyra

An illustration of a colossal statue at Karnak as it appears in the Description de l’Égypte

The Colossi of Memnon as seen by Lepsius’ artists and published in his Denkmäler

A short biography of Dr Anderson appears alongside all the lots. The Trustees will be considering how best to make use of the proceeds and an announcement will be made here in due course.

We have recently (June 2026) decided to create a new section of this website devoted to news, and in order to capture announcements made in the past will begin the sequence with a series of ‘Archive’ posts such as this one.

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2025 marks ten years since the death of our Founder, Dr Robert Anderson, a musician and Egyptologist. Robert had founded the charity in 1988 to formalise the assistance he had given to talented young scholars and performers over many years, mostly by providing them with small grants and accommodation in his London houses.

Robert in rehearsal, Westminster Cathedral, 1975

Robert, along with his Trustees, ran and guided his charity for the rest of his life, but in 2015 the Trust lost its Founder and inspiration, and many people around the world lost a cherished mentor. In July the Trust celebrated his life and legacy with a special concert at Leighton House which was led by the Trust’s Resident Musician Michal Oren.

Michal Oren and her musicians at the Trust’s summer concert at Leighton House in July 2025

In the years since Robert’s passing the Trustees, Director, Chris Naunton, and Co-ordinator, Howard Davies, have taken on the task of continuing Robert’s work. We have been very fortunate that Robert left the Trust in good health financially, and that legacies left by some of his friends have allowed us to maintain and diversify our activities.

The visitors’ programme remains a very important part of our work. This year twenty-three young scholars from ten different countries were offered places to spend time in London on their research. Some were studying Egyptology, Classics or Archaeology – Robert’s own principal specialisms along with music – but other subjects including museology, comparative law, film studies, and music tuition were also represented.

In addition to our visitors, who are with us for a period of one month of intensive research, the Trust now also provides accommodation in the longer term to a musician and an Egyptologist or archaeologist in Kensington, and to a student or scholar of another Humanities subject in Highgate. Our longer-term residents are chosen in collaboration with partner institutions which so far have included the Royal College of Music, Egypt Exploration Society, and Kings College London.

Amany Abd el-Hameed, the Trust’s first Joan Hawkins Resident Egyptologist

We believe that offering a mix of shorter and longer term placements allows the Trust to support a wider range of talented young people. Longer term placements also offer better value by allowing for a reduction to the one-off costs – in financial and administrative terms – of visas and flights.

Furthermore, we are now in a position to offer a wider variety of financial grants. In addition to the bursaries offered to our visitors and longer-term residents, we also support two musicians at the Royal College of Music through the Jean Middlemiss Award and Award in Memory of Ilona Eibenschütz, and in 2025 we began offering small grants through the Hawkins Special Fund.

Florence Cope, Jean Middlemiss Award holder 2023-25 

We have also recently inaugurated a new series of informal concerts, hosted in Dr Anderson’s music room in Kensington.

As we begin the second decade following The Founder’s death further new projects are also under consideration and we are excited about the Trust’s prospects for the future. Robert saw that there was a need to support young people, especially in the subjects he was most passionate about. That need has only grown since his death. The energy Robert gave to the cause was a source of inspiration to everyone he met, and all of us involved with the Trust are grateful for the opportunity to continue his work.

From left to right, top to bottom: Florence Cope, Jean Middlemiss Award (2023- ); Dr Ahmed Kamal, first visitor to the Kensington house in 2025; Dr Reham Zaky; Sonia Dixon; Michal Oren (Resident Musician 2022-25), conductor and resident Alvin Arumugam, Amany Abd el-Hameed (Resident Egyptologist 2024) and Marina Buffa Cesar outside the Kensington house; Dr Aleksandar Radovanović; Eman Selim; Filipe Abreu playing Richard Strauss’s Violin Sonata in E-flat Major during the 2024 summer concert at Hornton Street; Eleonora Terleckiene; Ahmed Elnasseh; Dr Anica Radosavlević-Krsmanović; Louis-Victor Bak, Ilona Eibenschütz Award (2023-25). All the above were visiting scholars in 2024 unless otherwise stated.

We have recently (June 2026) decided to create a new section of this website devoted to news, and in order to capture announcements made in the past will begin the sequence with a series of ‘Archive’ posts such as this one.

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In October 2020 the Trust reported that although the pandemic had forced us to suspend our programme of visitors, we had found new ways of providing support to students (see here). We knew, of course, that the circumstances had meant that many students were in even greater need than they would have been otherwise, and wanted to ensure that we could continue our work at a time when, if anything, it seemed more important than ever.

Another year has passed since that time and, of necessity, the visitors’ programme has remained suspended throughout. Thanks, however, to a refocussing of our activities, we nonetheless have much to report.

Resident Music Scholar – David Hedley

David Hedley’s studies at the Royal College of Music came to an end in summer 2021. Sadly, both his two years of study were blighted by the pandemic and the lockdowns, which prevented him from attending classes in person for much of the time, and from performing in public throughout. Nonetheless he had a busy year in 2020-21. From March onwards he worked on a freelance basis with the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia, providing him with the opportunity to work with Gianandrea Noseda and Sir Simon Rattle. David was able to bring his studies to a successful conclusion and he was awarded a Master’s degree with distinction in June 2021.

Virtual Concert

One of the most disappointing aspects of the disruption to our programme of activities is that we were unable to host a summer concert at the Founder’s former home in Kensington as in previous years. The concerts have always been enormously enjoyable occasions, providing Dr Anderson’s friends, students and supporters of the Trust with the opportunity to meet, and for our resident music scholars to perform for them. Under normal circumstances David would have planned and performed the programme at events in summer 2020 and 2021 but owing to COVID neither was possible.

However, determined not to be put off entirely, David suggested that he instead record a virtual concert to be broadcast online. He and a group of fellow musicians from the College recorded performances of three pieces during July 2021. The recording is available via YouTube and below, along with further information about the programme and ensemble.

PROGRAMME

J. S. Bach
Concerto for Oboe and Violin in D minor, BWV 1060
David Hedley – Oboe
Viviane Plekhotkine – Violin

J. S. Bach
‘Kommt, eilet und laufet’ (Easter Oratorio), BWV 249
David Hedley – Oboe

Antonio Pasculli
Variations on a theme from Donizetti’s La Favorita
arr. David Hedley

ENSEMBLE

David Hedley – solo oboe
Viviane Plekhotkine – Solo Violin / Violin 1
Emmanuel Webb – Violins 1/2
Lucy Holmes – Violin 2
Hattie Quick – Viola
Özgür Deniz Kaya – Cello

Video produced by Ashby Mayes.

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David has decided to extend his studies by taking an Artist Diploma at Guildhall School of Music and Drama for which he has been awarded a scholarship. We all sincerely hope that the forthcoming year will not be affected by COVID and that this time David will be able to take full advantage of the opportunity of spending a further year studying in London. His biography remains on the ‘Resident Music Scholar’ page here. We look forward to following his progress and wish him every success.

New Resident Music Scholar – John Paul Jennings

The end of David’s studies at the Royal College also brought about the end of his residential scholarship with the Trust and we are delighted to announce that the resident scholar for 2021-2 is John Paul Jennings. Supporters of the Trust will remember that ‘JP’ received the first Robert Anderson Trust Special Award in 2020-21. This was designed as a response to the pandemic, to support a student through these very difficult circumstances, and we are delighted to be able to extend our support to JP during the second year of his Master’s degree. JP’s biography and a recorded performance now appear on the Trust’s website here.

John Paul had a very busy year at the College and impressed the Trustees enormously with recorded performances and by enthusiastically reporting on his activities throughout.

Following a successful year of study, in June 2021, with financial support from the Trust, JP visited the Czech Republic to take part in a masterclass in Pilsen on Bizet’s Carmen. This was part of his preparation for the Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition, in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria later in the month in which he reached the semi-final. We are very much looking forward to following JP’s progress in the coming months.

A Second ‘Special Award’

In light of the suspension of the programme of visitors for a second year running the Trustees decided recently to make funds available for a second ‘special award’. We are delighted to announce that the award for the coming year is to be made to Anibal Vidal, a composer from Chile, who will be studying for an Artist Diploma at the College. We look forward to bringing you news of his progress. UPDATE DECEMBER 2021: A new page for the Special Award has now been created – here – and includes an extended biography of Anibal Vidal and a recorded performance of one of his compositions.

We have recently (June 2026) decided to create a new section of this website devoted to news, and in order to capture announcements made in the past will begin the sequence with a series of ‘Archive’ posts such as this one.

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Owing to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak the Trust’s programme of visitors for 2020 was suspended in April. In light of the current uncertainty and continuing risk of the spread of infection, the programme has now been postponed in its entirety until 2021. All candidates who were awarded places to visit us in 2020 (see the list here) have been offered alternative dates next year. For this reason there will be no applications process this year and all places for 2021 should be considered filled. The Trust will invite applications in autumn next year for visits to London in 2022. The Trust recognises that visits may remain impossible in 2021, and the programme will remain suspended until visitors from overseas can safely be accommodated without any risk to the health of the Trust’s staff and the permanent residents at its two London houses, or to the visitors themselves. We are nonetheless hopeful that it will be possible to resume the programme in the Spring and in any case will continue to keep prospective visitors informed of developments.

New ways of supporting students in 2020

Ordinarily, the Trust receives visiting researchers in the warmer months of the year, generally from April to November. Two visitors, Anna Fedorova and Karolina Bagdone, arrived in London in March but, sadly, both had to cut their visits short when the UK went into lockdown. The programme was suspended at that point and by the middle of the year it had become clear that it should be postponed in its entirety. As the Trust was therefore unable to undertake such a large and important part of its work, the Trustees began considering alternative ways of providing support to students and at a special meeting in September they agreed to four proposals, which have since been acted upon, as follows:

A ‘Robert Anderson Trust Special Award’

First, The Trustees agreed to create a special award for a deserving student of the Royal College of Music (RCM) to support them through the next year of their studies. The ‘Robert Anderson Trust Special Award’ is intended as a response to the current very challenging situation in which musicians and other artists have suffered greatly as a result of the cancellation of performances and other activities which are essential to their work. In consultation with the College it was agreed that the award should be given to John Paul Jennings, a student of conducting, to enable him to begin a two-year Master’s degree. As Dr Anderson was himself a conductor (see here), we believe John Paul (about whom further information is available here) to be an excellent candidate for the award, and we wish him every success in his studies.

A New Resident Musician at Hornton Street

Second, with no prospect of any visiting students staying at the Trust’s houses until spring at the earliest, the Trustees agreed to make a room at its Kensington house on Hornton Street available at a subsidised rate, to another student of the RCM. With the assistance of College staff, a suitable candidate was identified: José Teixeira, a bass trombonist from Portugal, who, thanks to the Trust’s offer, can now afford to begin his Bachelor’s degree.

Owing to the current COVID restrictions José was required to self-isolate at the house on arrival. Appropriate measures were put in place to ensure that he could be kept well supplied without leaving the building, and to minimise any risk of infection among residents (as has been the case throughout the crisis). We are delighted to have been able to help make José’s studies possible and look forward to following his progress in the coming year. Grant to Resident Music Student Third, recognising that the Trust’s current Resident Music Scholar, David Hedley, had suffered a significant loss of income as restrictions had made teaching difficult and public performances impossible, a loan made to David in Spring 2020 was confirmed as a grant, with no requirement that it be repaid.

Book Grants

Lastly, as most of the Trust’s visiting students come to London primarily to make use of specialist libraries containing literature essential to their research, recognising the detrimental impact that the postponement of their visits would have the Trustees agreed to make a ‘book grant’ to each of those who were awarded a place to study in London in 2020. All were notified of the grants in September 2020 and invited to select a book or books up to a certain value which the Trust would then purchase and dispatch to them in their home countries. While we recognise that one or two books could be no substitute for a month spent in the finest libraries London has to offer we hope that the gesture will make a difference to our students, however small, both to their capacity to continue their research and in lifting their spirits! In return, all were asked to send photographs of themselves with their books and these appear below and on the Trust’s social media accounts, as a reminder of the number and variety of research projects the Trust supports and a sign of its determination to remain active despite the ongoing crisis. We are grateful to them for their photos and hope to see them all in 2021!

We have recently (June 2026) decided to create a new section of this website devoted to news, and in order to capture announcements made in the past will begin the sequence with a series of ‘Archive’ posts such as this one.

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A newsletter summarising recent activities was produced in June 2019 and is available here.