Alumnus president of Lute Society

David (English Literature 1965) has just returned from giving a keynote speech in Montpellier, France and a course teaching lute making in the United States.

For two years whilst an undergraduate, David attended the early music seminars held by H A Mason of the English department. These started his fascination with the lute and so the concert, organised by Mr. Salter in 1965, fell on fertile ground and the lute has remained his passion ever since.

"Whilst not an obvious path to lutemaking as a profession, studying English Literature at Exeter and later at York did give me good grounding in the aesthetics of the 17th century and prepare me for the  iconographic and archival research necessary to build historically informed instruments."

David made his first lute in 1967 while researching the influences of Puritanism on the development of 17th century English literature at York University. After seven years as a lecturer in various technical colleges and as a tutor for the Open University, he began in the 1970s to make the instrument professionally in a converted former pig sty on a commune in Suffolk. He was elected to the Crafts Council Selected Index as a lute maker a few years later and took up the profession full-time after moving to Norwich.

During the past 35 years David has combined his skills to teach the art of making lutes and his services as a lecturer are in demand around the world. His website contains the history of the lute he wrote for the Grove Dictionary of Music: http://www.vanedwards.co.uk