Douglas Freundlich

Douglas Freundlich launched his lute career in the 1970s with The Greenwood Consort, winning the Erwin Bodky Award and Musical America "Young Artist of the Year." He has performed with many leading ensembles over the years, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Emmanuel Music, The Musicians of Swanne Alley, Ex Machina, Capriole, and the Revels. Freundlich is a founding member of the Venere Lute Quartet, whose current CD "Sweet Division" has received rave reviews from Early Music America, Goldberg, and Renaissance Magazines. The Quartet's next recording, "Palestrina's Lute," is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2006. In addition to his work with Renaissonics, this season includes tours of Italy and New England with the Venere Lute Quartet, as well as recording and performing with the Fanfare Consort. Freundlich teaches lute at the Longy School of Music, where he served as director of the early music program in the 1980s. Other lute teaching has included Lute Society of America seminars, Amherst Early Music, and Brandeis University. Freundlich has commissioned many new works for the lute, and has edited the lute music of Betsy Warren for Wiscasset Press. He also cross-trains as a violone player and bebop bassist, catalogs early music manuscripts at Harvard, and teaches a popular course on music cognition at Tufts University. Freundlich has recorded for TelArc, Titanic, Sine Qua Non, Revels, Radian Arts, and LSA.