About Us

Larry graduated from Ohio State in 1972 with a degree in Medieval and Renaissance English lit studies. He immediately traveled to London, England where he studied lute with teachers at the Royal College of Music. In England he met several lute makers, including Philip MacCloud-Coupe, and took an interest in instrument making. He returned to the U.S., set up a workshop and began building lutes and historical stringed instruments. For several years he served on the board of directors of the fledgling Guild of American Luthiers. He attended American Lute Society seminars each year for eight years and continued his study of lute technique. After fifteen years of supplying lutes and other early plucked-string instruments to musicians around the globe, he was seduced by the corporate world and the benefits it offered his family (regular salary, health insurance, paid vacations, etc.) For the next twelve years he used cadcam software to build prototypes of toys for the Kenner-Hasbro toy group. In 2000 the toy world was moved to Hong Kong, but he stayed in Cincinnati. He is now more active than ever in the early music world as a musician, playing lute, and building instruments for his own use only, or for the Noyse Merchants.

Tina's interest in early music began at a young age. When all of her friends listened to rock and roll, she spent hours listening to recordings of early music. In High School she studied classical guitar, recorder, and flute. She sustained herself in college years teaching flute and playing guitar in restaurants. She met Larry and they were married in 1990. Today she studies baroque guitar and plays keyless renaissance flute and renaissance and baroque recorders. She is shown here playing a 17th-century baroque guitar, built by Larry.

Lindsay plays the fiddle and the rebec in Musica Antiqua. New to the scene of folk and early music, she has previously played the violin in College and regional youth orchestras. Her other interests include dancing, cooking, martial arts, volunteering, and learning about other cultures. Lindsay currently works as an account administrator for U.S. Bank.

Christina Linsenmeyer moved to Cincinnati in August of this year. She is a doctoral candidate in Musicology at Washington University in St. Louis. She conducted research in Paris, Brussels, Antwerp and London for her dissertation entitled "Competing with Cremona: Innovation and tradition in nineteenth-century violin making in Paris," which concerns historicism and the cultural history of violin making (a.k.a. Why do we think Strads are so great?) She graduated from Colgate University in 1993 with honors in Music and went on to earn her Certificate in violin making and restoration from North Bennet Street School (Boston) in 1996. She has published articles about medieval manuscripts, renaissance emblem books, musical instruments, graduate student leadership and higher education, jazz and blues. Since moving to Cincinnati she has been activly fighting BSL (Breed-specific legislation). Christina plays modern and baroque cello and tenor and bass viola da gamba.

In the last ten years, David has been a member of the New Thought Unity Choir and a DJ for private parties. He had a radio show on WAIF (Child In Time). He is the Business Manager and Booking Agent for Gaiananda Cultural Music & Dance Ensemble and has played drums for them since their inception in 2001. David is also the Technical Manager for the Center for World Rhythms and Movement. He is a professional licensed massage therapist.

Catherine (Cate) was raised in the theatre in New York and Indiana. Her parents met at Riverside Church in NYC, where they sang with Virgil Fox. As a foreign exchange student in Brussels, Cate received an honorable mention in a piano competition. After undergraduate school at Indiana University, and a childhood full of summer stock and piano recitals, she returned to New York where she worked primarily in sketch comedy, co-founding a group called Legal Action that performed at the West Bank Café with Lewis Black. She has lived in Brussels, Nice and Paris. After her son was born in Paris in 1988 she began work on her doctorate in French. Her dissertation is about the religious influences in three works by Christine de Pizan, a 15th century French writer, considered to be France's first literary feminist. She completed her PhD and has been a professor at the University of Cincinnati for five years. In addition to teaching she is the coordinator of the basic French program at UC. Cate is thrilled to be singing old French with the Noyse Merchants, and to be back on stage making music and making people smile. As the group's vocalist, she is also happy to have the opportunity to return to playing an instrument. Her favorite new instrument so far is the Tibetan Prayer Bells. She appreciates the fact that mastery over the Tibetan bells requires less time than piano.

The word "noyse" is familiar to readers of Chaucer and other Middle English texts. The first appearance of the word in the 12th century reflects a neutral connotation: "They all made great joy with suche a joyfull noyse that the paynyms without dyd here it" (Berners Huon lix. 1566, OED). Its negative connotations do not appear until later when "noyse" comes to describe the aggregate of sounds produced in large towns. Etymologically the word can be traced back to Old French (noyse) and to 11th-century Provençal (noysa, nosa, nausa).