Peter Verhoeven     Tue, 3 Dec 2002 01:21:33 +0100
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Hello, just heard about this page and enjoyed to read the who's who. 
Here's mine :

I am 48, married with Denise.  We have two grown up boys (20 & 22) that left
the house recently.  Thus it is quite silent here since a few months !

I started playing guitar at the age of 12, being interested in folk and rock
music.  Soon I went to the local music school where I studied classical
guitar, and meanwhile, forgot all about my first ambitions.  Since I was 17
I thought guitar at several private music schools, called
'jeugdmuziekatelier' (musicworkshop for the youth).

Later on I went to the conservatory in Brussels and Antwerp.  My guitar
teacher played also the lute in a Belgian renaissance group, and when Konrad
Junghänel was invited to give a workshop at the conservatory I forgot about
the guitar and bought me a 6 and 10-course lute from Vandegeest.  A little
later I also bought a 13-course and a beautiful chitarone form the same.
Thus equipped I went to study lute with Toyohiko Satoh in Den Haag.  I also
went to summer school in Cheltenham twice, and with a few friends we started
a renaissance group.  I played together with Greet Schamp who's on this list
too.  In that period I gave several solo-recitals, joined a semi-pro
renaissance group and accompagnied a double-chorus on the chitarone.  My
biggest mistake was not to graduate at any conservatory : I was a bit lazy I
guess !  During studies my life became ruined after a bad relationship, and
in a moment of total dispair I sold all my lutes and even my guitars !
Weep, you unworthy mortals !

I was lucky to meet Denise : she helped me out of it, and with an
inexpensive guitar she bought in her teenies I resumed my musical career.
Gradually I learned to play the electric guitar, studied jazz for two years
and became a good acoustic fingerpicker.  I made a living out of busking in
Antwerp, Gent and at the coast.  I still went on teaching guitar and in 1982
I had the opportunity to take over the management of a private music school
in Antwerp and later on in Sint-Niklaas, my native town.  We worked with
young people and learned them to play rock music.  By 1990 my school had 600
pupils !  Meanwhile I did several recording sessions, played in a few
productions at the opera in Antwerp and Gent, was guitarist at the Flanders
Ballet Company and made a tour in Japan and Russia with the French
orchestra 'Caravelli'.

And now for the sad part : get out those tissues again !  In 1997 my music
school had some financial problems and I went to the local governement for
help.  They promised to help, but finding out that I did not graduate they
found a reason to work me out.  It was a dishonourable discharge and I found
myself on the street with nothing left : I spent all my savings to keep the
school alive during the last two years !

So since 2000 I am unemployed, living on social security.  My prospects in
finding a good job are zero (unqualified and thus dumb, remember ?)  I still
teach some blues-guitar to a few private pupils, and now for the good news :
two years ago I resumed playing the lute.

Meanwhile my fingers are pretty accustomed to the instrument again, and
occasionally I play here and there.  At the moment I own a 10-course lute by
Petr Vavrous (Prague) and a home-made 6-course descant lute.  Because I 
can't afford to buy new instruments, I decided to build them myself.  I went
to study at a school for luthiers in Puurs, and at this moment I am working
on my first real good lutes, a 6-course descant and a 6-course alto.

Though my contribution to the list has been below zero until now, I hope
that once I'll have something interesting to say.  In the meantime I
thank you all for the fascinating topics and pleasant conversation.

Peter