Before I left London in 1991, I tried to find work in Portugal - I had never been there, but I had met a lot of Portugese people, and it just seemed like my kind of place. Instead, I ended up in Italy, where my family is from. I had the chance to go to Portugal in 2001 for a cittern conference in Evora, and after that I started getting invited to give concerts in Coimbra and elsewhere. In 2018 after 10 years of cuts in cultural spending in France, I found myself teaching more and enjoying it less. In February of that year I went to Porto to record an album of music written by a dear friend from grad school days, Richard Gibson. During the recording of the album I found myself asking, “What am I not living here?” Well, by the end of September 2018, I had dropped everything in France and had moved to Portugal.

What with Covid, my father passing away and other things, I decided to retire from teaching completely and move out to the country in the Duoro region, near the border with Mihno. My little house is set part-way into a hill, so I call it New Bag End. I’ve settled into a quiet life, with equal amounts of gardening and recording. My big project is Cetra Records - a label dedicated to the cittern and its music, in all its myriad forms. Please check it out at cetrarecords.com