“Rhetoric of the Gods: Echoes of Antiquity in 17th Century French Lute Music” – introduction and performance by Catherine Liddell

Catherine Liddell is known primarily for her skill, sensitivity and experience accompanying 16th and 17th century music on lute and theorbo. In that capacity, she has performed with many of America’s leading period instrument ensembles, including, locally, the Handel & Haydn Society and Boston Baroque. In the solo repertoire for lute, she has a deep passion for 17th century French music and has given recitals of this rarely-heard repertoire at the Lute Society of America Summer Seminars and in fringe events at the Boston Early Music Festival. Her solo recording, La Belle Voilée, 17th Century French Music by Jacques Gallot and Others is available on the Centaur label and on iTunes.

She has also published Sacred Music for Lute, available through Lyre Editions, Fort Worth, Texas. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, Ms. Liddell earned the Soloist Diploma from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. She is Lecturer in Lute in the Historical Performance Program at Boston University and recently was appointed Chairman of the Board of the Aston Magna Foundation, which sponsors the longest running annual summer festival in America devoted to music performed on period instruments. For this program she explores the lute’s association with ancient Greek mythology which began in the 15th century and continued into the 17th century.