Michael Fields (born October 25, 1951) is a British-American musician - conductor, composer and guitar, lute, theorbo and ukulele player.
He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the son of an American father (Melvin Leo Fields) and an Australian mother (Roberta Doreen Harkin) who had met in Melbourne, Australia during World War II. Michael Fields lived in Hawaii until 1955, then in Marin County, California until 1961, Santa Cruz County until 1971, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 1971-74, and has been resident in England since 1974.
Fields showed an early aptitude for music: his first instrument was a Kamaka ukulele bought by his mother when he was born. After the family moved to California, he learned the "tonette", then he soon graduated to clarinet, which he played in the Capitola Elementary School Band. He began to play the guitar and piano at age 12, playing folk, rock and jazz music, and was soon leading his first band, "Piccadilly Circus", which performed at school dances. Other bands followed, the most successful being "The Back Door" in Santa Cruz, California and "Heritage" in Melbourne. During 1973-74, Fields led the backing band for "The Young Australians" - a group formed by Athol Guy of The Seekers.
Michael began the study of classical guitar at the Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music in Melbourne, under the guidance of Josef Ruecker. He moved to England in 1974 to advance his studies in classical guitar and lute, studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England, where his tutors there were Hector Quine, guitar and Anthony Rooley, lute. In 1977, Fields received the AGSM and LRAM diplomas in classical guitar performance and teaching, and continued his lute studies with Nigel North and later with Hopkinson Smith in Basel.
Michael Fields is known for his duo partnership with British soprano Evelyn Tubb, whom he met while at the Guildhall. They have made many recordings together and performed internationally.
He is the director of the medieval ensemble Vox Ainimae, baroque ensemble Sprezzatura (with Evelyn Tubb) and also a member of New Trinity Baroque (USA).
He began conducting in 1990. He is the musical director of Polyphony chamber choir in Wadhurst, East Sussex and of Phoenix Choir in Eastbourne, East Sussex.
In his career as a performer, opera director and teacher, he has travelled around the world several times, with many rewarding and interesting collaborations along the way. One of them was directing a performance of Dido and Aeneas in Belgrade in 1996 with Evelyn Tubb in the role of Dido and Predrag Gosta in the role of Sorceress.
A lute is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. More specifically, the term "lute" can refer to an instrument from the family of European lutes. The term also refers generally to any string instrument having the strings running in a plane parallel to the sound table. The strings are attached to pegs or posts at the end of the neck, which have some type of turning mechanism to enable the player to tighten the tension on the string or loosen the tension before playing, so that each string is tuned to a specific pitch. The lute is plucked or strummed with one hand while the other hand "frets" the strings on the neck's fingerboard. By pressing the strings on different places of the fingerboard, the player can shorten or lengthen the part of the string that is vibrating, thus producing higher or lower pitches (notes).
The theorbo is a plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck and a second pegbox. Like a lute, a theorbo has a curved-back sound box with a wooden top, typically with a sound hole, and a neck extending out from the soundbox. As with the lute, the player plucks or strums the strings with one hand while "fretting" the strings with the other hand; pressing the strings in different places on the neck produces different pitches (notes), thus enabling the performer to play chords, basslines and melodies.
New Trinity Baroque is an ensemble and orchestra with an associated chamber choir, specialised in baroque music played on period instruments. It was founded in 1998 in London but is now based in Atlanta, United States. It is led by harpsichordist and conductor Predrag Gosta.
The Taverner Choir, Consort and Players is a British music ensemble which specialises in the performance of Early and Baroque music. The ensemble is made up of a Baroque orchestra, a vocal consort and a Choir. Performers place emphasis on a historically informed performance practice and players work with restored or replicated period instruments.
Hopkinson Smith is an American lutenist and pedagogue, longtime resident in Basel, Switzerland.
The harp guitar is a guitar-based stringed instrument generally defined as a "guitar, in any of its accepted forms, with any number of additional unstopped strings that can accommodate individual plucking." The word "harp" is used in reference to its harp-like unstopped open strings. A harp guitar must have at least one unfretted string lying off the main fretboard, typically played as an open string.
Paul R. O'Dette is an American lutenist, conductor, and musicologist specializing in early music.
The Harp Consort is an international early music ensemble directed by Andrew Lawrence-King, specialising in Baroque opera, early dance-music, and historical World Music.
Jacopo Gianninoto is an Italian lutenist, guitarist and composer living in Bangkok, Thailand.
Nigel North is an English lutenist, musicologist, and pedagogue.
Rob MacKillop is a Scottish composer and multi-instrumentalist, specializing in lute, theorbo, vihuela, banjo, ukulele and both classical and Russian guitar. He is an important performer of Early Music in Scotland. He is also a photographer.
Timothy Allen Burris is an American lutenist.
John H. Schneiderman is an American lutenist and guitarist born in Ithaca, New York, where his father was a member of the faculty of Cornell University. Schneiderman was introduced to music by his mother, who taught him to play the ukulele when he was six years old. He began performing at the age of nine, playing the banjo and fiddle at bluegrass festivals in California. Schneiderman received his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Irvine, studying guitar under Frederick Noad. He continued his studies at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland with lutenist Eugen Müller-Dombois.
Predrag Gosta is a Serbian-Croatian-American conductor and harpsichordist.
Jakob Lindberg is a Swedish lutenist, performing solo, in small and large ensembles, and also directing operas, using instruments of the lute and guitar families. He is known for the first ever recording of the Complete Solo Lute Music of John Dowland as well as for recording music never before recorded, with repertoire dating back to the Renaissance period.
Michael Pospíšil is a classical bass, specialising in historically informed performance. He is the founder and leader of the ensemble Ritornello which performs music of the 16th and 17th centuries for voices and a great variety of instruments.
Richard Stone is an American lutenist, music director, educator and music editor. He performs on lute and theorbo as a soloist and accompanist; he and Gwyn Roberts co-founded and co-direct Tempesta di Mare, The Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra; his musical editions are published by AR Editions and Prima la Musica; and he lectures and teaches lute, theorbo, continuo and performance practice for singers and instrumentalists at the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University.
Christopher Wilke is an American composer, lutenist, guitarist, recording artist, and teacher.
Charles Hurel was a French Baroque composer, lutenist and theorbist active between 1665 and 1692.
Sastamala Gregoriana is an annual early music festival that takes place in late July in the city of Sastamala, Finland. The festival combines an international concert programme of early music from the medieval, renaissance and baroque periods, old lakeside churches of Sastamala with the unique acoustic spaces and warm local atmosphere. An international early music master class complements the concert series.
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