Eugene Braig  Mon, 20 Dec 2004 23:17:18
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I first encountered music through my grandfather who loved to strum cowboy 
songs on his guitar and croon while sporting appropriate, period attire 
(i.e., big hats, big footwear, and flannel shirts accessorized with 
kerchiefs).  This is the repertoire on which I started as a youngish boy, 
but I aborted when still very youngish and didn't come back to it until 
into my mid-late teens.  By then, my tastes favored old acid/prog rock as 
well as jazz fusion and my instruments were all modern incarnations of guitar.

I first encountered real lutes midway through my bachelors' degree via 
local renaissance faires.  I shied away from the reams of tights-wearing, 
puffy-sleeved escapists accompanying modern Irish songs on steel-string 
guitars, and sought out the rare lutenists--whether adorned in tights or
denim, attire and pseudo-cockney was irrelevant to me--who attended these 
things to perform.  As I was finishing my BS, I took up the classical 
guitar with some degree of seriousness because all my hard-rock jam 
partners had had the audacity to grow up, obtain degrees, get jobs, and 
move away; there just isn't much satisfying solo literature for
heavy-metal wankering.

After my initial exposure, I picked up a real fondness for historic 
instruments.  I tweedle on guitars and guitar-like things: vihuela through 
a reproduction Herman Hauser guitar with several nodes of interest in 
between.  Mandolins and historic mandolins have become a recent obsession, 
especially the mature 6-course instrument played lute-style (i.e., with the 
fingers) that was popular in the baroque era.  I read a few books and 
started visiting instrument collections for the sole purpose of viewing,
measuring, and photographing early mandolins.  I have been invited to 
contribute some text to a pending book and to lecture on historic mandolins 
at some universities.  These projects are still speculative at best, and I 
don't yet know what of them will bear fruit.

On the day job, I work in research, education, and outreach regarding the 
ecology of the US Great Lakes via Ohio Sea Grant, a program of the National 
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.  I advise an aquatic 
conservation club for students at The Ohio State University, serve as an
officer for a state-wide aquatic conservation club, and belong to a few 
professional societies for fisheries biologists or wildlife managers. Out 
of the office, I play modern classical guitar and mandolin for hire with a 
semi-professional chamber ensemble and am Artistic Director of the Columbus 
Guitar Society's concert series.  ...And I play period plucked strings to 
amuse myself whenever time is available.

Best,
Eugene Braig