About Us

Larry graduated from Ohio State in 1972 with a B.A. in English literature with an emphasis on Medieval and Renaissance studies. He immediately traveled to London, England where he studied lute with teachers at the Royal College of Music. In England he took an interest in instrument making and studied construction techniques and museum lutes with several lute makers. The 70's was a pivotal period of research and discovery in the early instrument world, more so in England than anywhere else.

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 Larry 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 classical guitar in restaurants. She met Larry and they were married in 1990. Today she studies and plays baroque guitar, renaissance guitar, keyless renaissance flute and renaissance and baroque recorders. She is shown here playing a 17th-century baroque guitar, built by Larry.

Lindsay plays the medieval vielle, rebec, and treble viola da gamba 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.

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 was the Technical Manager for the Center for World Rhythms and Movement. He is a professional licensed massage therapist.

Karen Wissel is currently the Assistant to the Artistic Director of Growth in Motion, Fanchon Shur. While training and working under Fanchon, Karen has performed in Flight Fight Freeze, Totems of Tolerance, Ode to Mother Francis, Woman’s Day of Prayer and Cease Fire Cincinnati. Karen studied at the University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music prior to completing her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in dance from Ohio State University. Ms. Wissel has performed Capoeria in Salavdor. Bahia, Brazil, and with the Sun Youth Symphony in Beijing, China. She has also had the pleasure to work with Judith Mikita, in her Leonardo Dreams piece for CWC in 2007. Ms. Wissel was a principle dancer of Pones Inc, performing THE FACTORY at NKU, The Avenue, Sassafras Art Gallery, and the 20-20 Festival at Fountain Square. An ongoing collaboration has evolved with Japanese composer Kazuaki Shiotas with his composition students in Tokyo, Japan. She has performed two of their works at PTA. Her newest collaboration with Alok Narayana using dance, cello, and tabla in a performance arts setting, to their delight, has been kicking up a storm in Cincinnati.

In addition to being an amazing irish dancer she has a hauntingly beautiful singing voice and plays the cello.

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).