According to French press reports, the French theorbo and lute player Pascal Monteilhet has died of heart failure at the age of 67. He had played a key role in shaping the early music movement in France.
Born in 1955, Monteilhet completed his training with Eugen M. Dombois and Hopkinson Smith as the first French lutenist at the Schola Cantorum in Basel in 1982. Parallel to his concert activities, he founded a lute class at the Paris Conservatoire National de Région in 1991 and a class at the Conservatoire National de Région Supérieur de Musique in 1994.
A perfectionist, he underwent fingertip surgery to achieve a better sound with his instrument. In the noughties of the 21st century, he decided to end his career. As a result of this decision, he donated his instruments to the theorbist Benjamin Perrot.
