h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Richard is my nephew on my wife's side.

The son of two musicians, he played the cello from a young age, and when at ten he was given a guitar for Christmas he learned his way round it very quickly. The following summer he spent a few weeks with us and learnt just about all I could teach him; my first job had been teaching classical guitar in the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

On leaving school he began a diploma course in classical guitar and after a year changed to lute. He is now a professional lute player, and lives in Sweden. He also works as a website designer: http://richardsweeney.com/

He recorded as a guest artist on the CD 'Flow my tears' that I mentioned yesterday F103872?thread=8285913

Here is a solo track by Richard from that CD http://arrow.dit.ie/aaconmusaud/9/ (free download).

Well Richard has retired from the life of a lutenist, which is a pity because he is one of the best. He has taken a job in Malmö as a web designer with Good Old http://goodold.se/

You can take the man out of the lute...

... but his lute will have to be wrested from his cold dead hands. We hope so.