I am a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and a traditional and historical music specialist. I direct the early music group THEATRO, and oversaw their international recording of "soundtrack" music from the plays of William Shakespeare, performing, engineering, mixing, and mastering the album. I won a GRAMMY® Award for my lute, theorbo, and guitar playing on Apollo's Fire's Songs of Orpheus album. I am working as a recording artist for the Netflix music lab and am a featured soloist on the soundtrack of their original series The Witcher and The Decameron. I also arranged Russian folk songs for the Guillermo del Toro film Frankenstein. In the realm of video games, I was a soloist on the soundtrack of No Rest For the Wicked and am currently composing and recording the soundtrack of the upcoming release Dark Ages: Rebellion. Remote recording available.
Instruments
Lutes- Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque. Medieval lutes mostly play single line and drones but some carefully written polyphonic music and chords are possible
Ouds- Ancient and Modern. The oud has a characteristic sound that's hard to describe but immediately identifiable when you hear it. It mostly plays single lines and tremolo. It is also possible to bend and vibrato notes, and play quarter tones.
Guitars- Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Modern. The Renaissance guitar is similar to the ukulele in timbre and tuning. If it's possible on a uke, it can be played on Ren guitar. Baroque guitar is tuned like a modern guitar but much brighter due to it's octave stringing in the lower notes. It can be plucked or strummed like a flamenco guitar.
Percussion- I play a variety of hand percussion instruments from around the world and throughout history. I can play written rhythms, improvise, or provide atmospheric sounds.
Gittern- Medieval. It is a major 3rd down from a mandolin. It plays single lines and drones. Rarely other chords are possible.
Citole- Medieval. Metal strung, more of a bright silvery tone. I have 3, a Soprano m3 higher than mandolin, a tenor one octave down, a bass one octave down from that. It plays single lines drones and chords.
Theorbo- Baroque. A much larger and deeper form of lute generally used for basso continuo, or improvising chords to baroque orchestral music. It works best with rich arpeggiated chords and closer harmonies than other lutes.
Lyres- Ancient and Medieval. The Greek lyre has 7 strings and can only play those notes. Please see this video for an example. The Anglo Saxon or Old English lyre has 6 strings and can be plucked or strummed within the range of a 6th.