Lute Camp

On Arrival

I had never imagined such a thing as "Lute Camp" might exist. It is the biennial Cleveland Lute Festival, held at Case Western Reserve in Ohio. The week brings together an incredible selection of the world's most prestigious lute players, makers, and historians. 

Before the seminar dives into such courses as "Understanding Francesco" and "Lute Music of the German High Baroque Rhetoric," we were met with a concert of Italian lute music form the 16th century. Nigel North is an outstanding lutenist from England, and he titled the concert "A Decoration of Silence." The name couldn't have been more apt, for I have sat through more than my fair share of classical concerts and never before has an audience been more rapt and quiet. As one of the audience phrased it, everyone was waiting to hear the first note be spun.