David Rastall   Wed, 12 Mar 2003 01:31:15 -0500
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I'll add my lifestory, or whatever parts of it are actually worth
hearing about, to the thread here. I was born in Birmingham, England in
1945. My family moved to Dundee, Scotland and then to South Africa,
where we lived until 1960, four years in Johannesburg and five years in
Durban. At the end of 1960 we moved to the US, where I currently reside.

My professional life in the 1970's and 80's involved working with
high-school-age TMR (Trainable Mentally Retarded) kids, and also I
taught juvenile offenders in prison facilities in and around Orange
County,CA. Nowadays my wife and I run a music studio in Frederick, MD.  

Musical history:  I began taking classical guitar lessons in 1962, and
from 1965 to 1968 I studied with Vicente Gomez in Los Angeles.  I took
up the lute with Donna Curry in 1980.  After playing a lot of
renaissance lute and recorder music I became involved in the folk music
scene in the mid-80's, and I spent the next 10 years playing gigs on the
hammered dulcimer, Celtic harp and Bodhran. I managed to work in some
luteplaying occasionally, but not much.   During that time I also sang
countertenor in the Grand Rapids Choir of Men and Boys.   It wasn't
until 1994 that I got back into lute playing seriously again after
attending an LSA seminar in Evanston, IL.  I'm currently playing a
6-course renaissance lute in A, a 6-course in G and a 10-course in F,
along with a vihuela in G.  I also play a little jazz guitar, just to
keep myself on my toes! 

That's it, folks. 

David Rastall