About David Lenson
Born and raised in the St. Catharines-Niagara Falls area of Ontario, David has always had a keen interest in the Arts and in Science and Technology. Studies have taken him through modern languages, theatre, music performance, musicology and computer technology.
Music
Music was a late acquisition as he was 19 before ever starting to
learn to play an instrument. Classical guitar was the first
serious venture and David taught guitar in a studio before returning
to university to persue full-time studies on lute. He
graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1982 after four years
of study with Paul O'Dette and proceeded to do a Master of Arts in
Musicology at the University of Western Ontario specializing in
medieval and early music.
During his time at Western, he formed the baroque ensemble Parnassus
which joined forces with the choral group Norfolk Singers to perform
English oratorios, particularly those of Handel. As that group
refined itself into the ensemble presently known as Arcady, he became stage director
for the ensemble in the joint presentations of Purcell's Dido
and Aeneas (for which he also composed the music for the
prologue), Handel's Acis and Galatea (1731 version), Mozart's
Magic Flute and directed the first performances of Ronald
Beckett's opera trilogy Ruth, John the Baptist and
I Am. He was also technical producer for two of
Arcady's recording - Welcome Yule and Ruth.
David continues to perform on lute and theorbo with both
Arcady and the
Toronto Continuo Collective and
whenever an opportunity presents itself.
Technology
Computers became a part of life while David was at the University of Western Ontario. One of his TA positions was to instruct two professors in the use of the personal computer when the first PC arrived in the faculty. Research and innovation led him to become the 'expert' of the day on anything related to the PC. This led to after-hours studies of programming which later led to his current day-to-day livelihood as a mainframe Systems Developer for a large insurance company.
Recording and editing audio became a facination even before the
study of music began. Editing has spanned the gamut of
techniques from reel to reel editing with a razor blade and tape to
a sophisticated digital workstation. Well over 100
performances of Arcady and Parnassus were recorded in venues throughout
Southern Ontario. Audition recordings have been done for
graduating students at the University of Western Ontario.
Technical production was done for two of Arcady's CDs in
collaboration with
Audiocraft Productions. Video of Arcady's two Christmas
programs - Messiah and Welcome Yule were compelted in 2010.
Video has also been done for Toronto Continuo Collective and Lucas
Harris. Samples can be found on the Audio and Video pages as
well as on
YouTube.