Alain Veylit     Mon, 10 Jan 2000 12:14:13 -0800
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Dear all,

As for myself: like 80% of the people on this list apparently, I am a
professional programmer in my mid-forties (hopefully "nell mezzo del
camino"...). Previous to my current computer job, I was a curator of rare books
at the British library for a while and taught various things including French
and literature in the UK and the US. My current line of work involves rare
books: our project pretends to catalog every single surviving piece of print
produced in England and North America between 1475 and 1800. We are also trying
to track every single newspaper ever published in California.

I got my first lute in 1979 in Bristol, England, from my roomate who happened
to be a competent and open-minded guitar maker. I came to lute music via Renbourn
and the Rooley/Tyler duets. I never liked Bream that much... After going
back to my native wine making region around Bordeaux I had to sell my lute to
the university there because I could not find a new set of strings and
fishing line was only good for the treble... I left France again for the US,
for the purpose of improving my English skills, and I guess I must be a very
poor student because 20 years later I am still there. Living in California
allows me to keep my wine connections intact though...

When I arrived at the university of Riverside in the mid-80s, the music
department there had an idle lute and I was able to borrow it for a few years
and play again, mostly duets and consort music. After my PhD comprehensive
exams, I was fortunate enough to give James Tyler a phone call - he was just
starting his master's degree in Early music performance at USC - and he very
kindly  invited me to sit in "Baroque band" practice for the year, which was a
fabulous experience. Not to mention that I am very proud to be one of few
people who attended anything at USC and got out of it with their shirt still on
their back...  Many thanks, Jim!

I had a few master classes, the best ones - but most painful also - with
O'Dette. A year and a few months later I surprised myself still learning from a
one half-hour session.  I own a 14-course small extension archlute made by John
Rollins, and I only very recently took to the Baroque lute - the instrument
itself had been sitting in its case by my desk for a couple of years. I am now
contemplating the possibility that for twenty years I have been playing the
wrong instrument. Oh well...

I am married and have two daughters, one 8-year old and one 11. Instead of
working on StringWalker bugs this Sunday, I had to take the girls to their swim
meet in L.A. My biggest problem, besides managing time, is the difficulty - no,
the impossibility! - to find the right sort of people to play with for serious
fun...  Unfortunately - or fortunately given some of the recent nasty
exchanges... - the success of this list is due in part to the great distances
that separate, not only lute players, but lute players and gamba players,
flutists, singers, and all other early music amateurs. One of my many projects
would be the creation of a searchable, WEB-based directory of early music
performers, to make it easier for musicians to find out who's out there and
perhaps just around the corner...

Alain