Martin Shepherd   Mon, 10 Jan 2000 10:48:25 -0000
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I like the idea of being able to imagine people on the Lute Net a little
more clearly, so here's my contribution:

I first got interested in playing the guitar when I was 17. I liked
ragtime/country blues (anyone remember Rev. Gary Davies?) and John
Renbourn, though I never owned a steel string guitar. I taught myself to
read music and started to explore the classical guitar repertoire. Then I
went to college to do a degree in Psychology and got the chance of
free(!) guitar lessons every week with Julian Byzantine, who taught me a
lot about music as well as the guitar. My left hand underwent some pretty
thorough training.

The next decisive moment was (about a year later) attending a
lecture-recital given by Anthony Rooley in 1973. He was really friendly
and enthusiastic and from that moment on I realised I had to play the
lute. Being an impoverished student it took me some time to get around to
buying a lute, and it wasn't until the end of my doctoral studies (1979)
that I finally acquired a lute, aged 24 (me, not the lute). I filed off
my nails, changed my right hand to "thumb-inside", put the guitar in its
case and that was that.

In 1980 I attended my first Lute Society Summer School at Cheltenham. I
was particularly impressed with Chris Wilson's recital of early 16th C
music and went off to make myself a 6c lute. I subsequently had further
lessons with Chris in London and continued to explore Spinacino,
Capirola, Francesco, etc. My first concerts on the lute were around this
time. I also met Stewart McCoy, and we've been playing lute duets ever
since - is that a record?

I made several more lutes for my own use, then started to take
commissions in 1988. One of the first was from a lady called Claire who
was looking for a lute, and an accompanist for lute songs. I made her a
nice lute and she became my wife! At the time she was working part-time
(as a doctor) in order to study singing and take occasional professional
engagements as a singer. We did lots of lute songs and lute duets, and
through close association with Robert Spencer I began to acquire all the
Boethius Press facsimiles of English lute music and started to play
Dowland etc. more seriously and frequently than before.

I finally abandoned my academic career (career - to dash wildly,
uncontrollably...) in 1991 to concentrate on making and playing lutes.

Claire's singing career has taken backstage as she went back to full-time
working AND produced three children in four years - they are Francis
(nearly 7), Hugh (5), and Anna (nearly 4). None of them has yet taken up
the lute...

On matters non-lutistical we love France, good food and wine (I'm the
cook), and inspired by Claire (a skier of 20 years) the rest of us are
learning to ski.

I am preparing a website, so you should soon be able to read my
catalogue, see pictures of my lutes, and download a "piece of the
month".

Best wishes,

Martin