Douglas Freundlich launched his lute career in the 1970s with The Greenwood Consort, winning the Erwin Bodky Award and Musical America's “Young Artist of the Year.” Over the years he has performed with many early music ensembles, including Boston Baroque, Renaissonics, Emmanuel Music, The Musicians of Swanne Alley, Ex Machina, Capriole, and the Christmas Revels. Doug is a founding member of the Venere Lute Quartet, whose current CD Sweet Division, published by the LSA, has received rave reviews from Early Music America, Goldberg, and Renaissance magazines. Doug also has recordings on the TelArc, Titanic, Sine Qua Non, Revels, and Radian Arts labels.
Doug's current season includes West Coast and Italian tours with the VLQ as well as tours with Renaissonics and the Fanfare Consort. Doug teaches lute at the Longy School of Music, where he also served as director of the Early Music Program in the 1980s. Other lute teaching has included LSA Seminars, Amherst Early Music, and Brandeis University. Doug has commissioned many new works for the lute, and he 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's Isham Library, and teaches a popular course on music cognition at Tufts University.
