Nigel North (born 5 June 1954) is an English
lutenist and
guitarist.
Student days
He studied guitar on a scholarship to the junior department of the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1964–70), taking up the
lute in 1969, at the age of 15. He maintains he was more or less self-taught on the instrument. He went on to study at the
Royal College of Music from 1971 to 1974:
classical guitar with
John Williams and
Carlos Bonell,
viola da gamba with Francis Baines; lute (one term) with Diana Poulton, qualifying in 1974 with an A.R.C.M. diploma in lute performance. He completed his studies on the postgraduate course in Early Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama 1975–1975 and with one month's study with baroque lutenist Michael Schäffer in 1976.
Teaching
Overlapping his student years, in 1975 he was appointed Professor of Lute at the Guildhall School for Music and Drama, a position he held until 1996. From 1993 to 1999 he was Professor of Historical Plucked Instruments at the
Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, Germany. From January 1999 he has been Professor of Lute at the Early Music Institute,
Jacobs School of Music,
Indiana University and, from January 2005, has taught the lute at the
Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Holland.
He has written the standard modern textbook on continuo playing on the lute and related instruments:
(review)
The following textbook is in preparation:
Lute and Early Guitar - a Performance Practice Handbook Original didactic sources from 1500 - c.1760, for lute and guitar. Sources in facsimile, with translations and full editorial comment; covering the working repertoire of a modern lutenist. It will be a book in which one may find the answers to performance practice questions taken directly from original sources.
Professional career
His recording life began in the mid-1970s; while studying at music college, he played
viol,
cittern,
rebec and
violin as well as his more usual instruments, lute,
theorbo,
mandolin and
baroque guitar on recordings with some of the English pioneers of
early music of that time, such as
David Munrow with The Early Music
Consort and
Alfred Deller with The Deller Consort.
From 1974 to 1990 Nigel North played in baroque operas, baroque orchestras and chamber groups and accompanied singers in concerts, participating in over 100 recordings. Notable groups and people with whom he has worked:
The English Concert (Trevor Pinnock)
The Academy of Ancient Music (Christopher Hogwood)
The Brandenburg Consort (Roy Goodman)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Rene Jacobs)
Red Byrd
Fretwork
London Baroque
Peter Pears (Aldeburgh Festival, 1976)
James Bowman
Michael Chance
Nancy Argenta
Emma Kirkby
With Andrew Manze (violin) and John Toll (harpsichord) he formed the ensemble Romanesca in 1988; they played together for the next 10 years.
His solo lute debut was a Bach programme at the Wigmore Hall in 1977; in 1985 he performed all of Bach's lute works for the first time in London. Numerous recitals and recordings followed and from 1984 to 2001 he toured worldwide.
He has made transcriptions for lute of Bach's solo violin works and solo cello suites, which he has performed at the Wigmore Hall and recorded on a 4 CD set, Bach on the Lute (1994–1998). He has published an edition of these transcriptions for lute tablature, classical guitar and staff notation.
Other notable recordings include the complete lute works of John Dowland (4 CDs on Naxos Records), and a series of CDs of music by 17th-century French lutenists.
Published editions of lute music
Oxford University Press Lute Series
Lute Music by William Byrd (Volume 6), 1976
Lute and Bandora Music by Alfonso Ferrabosco (Volume 8), 1979, Stainer and Bell
Tablature for 2 Lutes Volumes 1 and 2 (English Renaissance Treble and Ground Duets), 1983, Faber Music/Indiana University Press
Varietie of Lute Lessons, Robert Dowland's anthology of 1610 (in preparation).
Sources
Stephen Haynes: 'North, Nigel', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2007-05-06),
'North, Nigel', Hutchinson Encyclopedia of Britain, Helicon Publishing, March 2005
External links
http://www.nigelnorth.com/ - personal website
Linn Records: Nigel North
Indiana University: Nigel North
Category:English classical guitarists
Category:Living people
Category:1954 births
Category:British performers of early music
Category:English lutenists
![Blackwell UK Ltd is a national chain of bookshops, online retail, mail order and library supply services which has an annual turnover of £74 million.[citation needed] The business is distinct from Blackwell Publishing, a leading academic and journal publisher, which was also owned by the Blackwell family, under the leadership of Nigel Blackwell, until its sale to John Wiley & Sons in 2007. The company started out as a bookshop selling academic books in Oxford, England, growing to include a chain](http://web.archive.org./web/20110202220408im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/31/21/a7e6af1450b4d8f3a27dc163af8b_grande.jpg "Blackwell UK Ltd is a national chain of bookshops, online retail, mail order and library supply services which has an annual turnover of £74 million.[citation needed] The business is distinct from Blackwell Publishing, a leading academic and journal publisher, which was also owned by the Blackwell family, under the leadership of Nigel Blackwell, until its sale to John Wiley & Sons in 2007. The company started out as a bookshop selling academic books in Oxford, England, growing to include a chain")
![Blackwell UK Ltd is a national chain of bookshops, online retail, mail order and library supply services which has an annual turnover of £74 million.[citation needed] The business is distinct from Blackwell Publishing, a leading academic and journal publisher, which was also owned by the Blackwell family, under the leadership of Nigel Blackwell, until its sale to John Wiley & Sons in 2007. The company started out as a bookshop selling academic books in Oxford, England, growing to include a chain](http://web.archive.org./web/20110202220408im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/31/21/a7e6af1450b4d8f3a27dc163af8b_thumb.jpg "Blackwell UK Ltd is a national chain of bookshops, online retail, mail order and library supply services which has an annual turnover of £74 million.[citation needed] The business is distinct from Blackwell Publishing, a leading academic and journal publisher, which was also owned by the Blackwell family, under the leadership of Nigel Blackwell, until its sale to John Wiley & Sons in 2007. The company started out as a bookshop selling academic books in Oxford, England, growing to include a chain")
