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Jordi Savall is among the leading instrumentalists and conductors of the European early music scene, specializing in Renaissance and medieval music. He began studying music when he was six, learning cello and pursuing that instrument at the Barcelona Conservatory. He took an interest in early music, and began learning the viola da gamba. That instrument possesses approximately the same range and similar playing technique as the cello, but instead of being a member of the violin family is part of the related, older family of stringed instruments, the viol family, visually most easily distinguished from their cousins by their sloping shoulder lines. As its name denotes, the instrument, smaller than a cello, is ordinarily held in the lap. Savall also gained proficiency in the various members of the viola family. He studied that instrument and early music research and practice with Wieland Kuijken in Brussels and August Wenziger at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, obtaining a dip...