Originally trained as a flautist, Lynda Sayce read Music at Oxford, where she heard a lute for the first time, and was immediately smitten by the instrument and its repertory. She subsequently studied lute with Jakob Lindberg at the Royal College of Music, and now performs regularly as soloist and continuo player with leading period instrument ensembles worldwide. She is principal lutenist with La Serenissima, The King’s Consort and Ex Cathedra, and appears on more than 100 commercial recordings. She also directs the lute ensemble Chordophony, whose repertory and instrumentarium are based entirely on her research. Lynda has performed with many leading modern instrument orchestras and opera companies, and was chosen by Sir Simon Rattle to play lute continuo for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra’s recent epic staging of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, performed in Europe and the US. Her discography ranges from some of the earliest surviving lute music to the jazz theorbo part in Harvey Brough’s ‘Requiem in Blue’ and the latest album from folk rock legend Boris Grebenchshikov. She is very happy to revisit her first musical love, and often plays early flutes and recorders in concert. In 2014, after many years as a frustrated listener, she bought a viol, and now ventures on stage as a gamba player with Newe Vialles, The City Musick, and Sounds Historical.

Lynda holds a Ph.D for her work on the history of the theorbo, which is being prepared for publication, and has written for the New Grove Dictionary of Music, Early Music, and the art journal Apollo.

Read her interview with Continuo Connect.