Ronald Masin

Ronald Rudolf Masin (9 August 1937 – 5 November 2025) was a Dutch violinist, concertmaster, chamber musician, and music educator whose career spanned more than six decades across the Netherlands, South Africa, and Ireland. He served as concertmaster of the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (now the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra) from 1963 to 1984, co-founded the Amsterdam Kern Ensemble, and spent nearly thirty years as a professor at the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama in Dublin. He was also the founder of the Music Instrument Fund of Ireland (MIFI) in 1995, Ireland's only charity dedicated to providing professional-quality instruments to promising young string players.

Early life and education Masin was born on 9 August 1937 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to parents of Czech-Dutch descent. He began violin studies at the age of five at the Rotterdam Music Conservatory during the Second World War, continuing through the period of heavy bombardment of the city.

To pursue advanced professional training, Masin returned to Europe and enrolled at the Royal Music Conservatory in Brussels, where he studied under the Hungarian violinist and pedagogue André Gertler, a central figure in the Hungarian school of violin playing. Masin described Gertler as a "great inspiration" throughout his life. In 1962, he graduated with violin and chamber music diplomas with the highest distinction. During his studies in Brussels he met the Hungarian violinist and violist Maria Kelemen, who was studying there on a Ford Scholarship; they married in Brussels in 1962. During its active years the ensemble performed over 600 concerts across 22 countries, touring Europe, the Americas, South Africa and Russia.

Dublin Institute of Technology Following the family's relocation to Dublin in 1987–88, Masin was appointed as a senior lecturer and subsequently professor at the Conservatory of Music and Drama at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT, now TU Dublin Conservatoire). He taught there for nearly thirty years until his official retirement at the age of 65 in 2002. The fund's first patron was Yehudi Menuhin, who supported the initiative until his death in 1999. Masin also served as the inaugural chairman of the European String Teachers Association (ESTA) in Ireland.