Thomas Binkley was an American lutenist and musicologist who specialized in early music. Also a prolific and award-winning recording artist, he can be found on over 50 recordings. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1931 and had one older brother. His mother worked as a librarian for the University of Colorado and was also a skilled pianist. His father was a historian, author, and educator who taught at various universities including Stanford, Harvard, and Colombia. Binkley began playing music as a trombonist in his school band, and later as a teen he played in a local dance band. He also played folk music on the guitar with his brother. After he graduated high school, he moved to New York, and worked a series of unrelated jobs including hospital night guard, taxi driver, and bottle washer for a milk factory. He then joined the marines for a short time until he was honorably discharged because of an injury to his elbow, which would prove to be a blessing in disguise. His injury forced him to stop playing the trombone, but this led to a renewed interest in the guitar, and eventually his discovery of the lute. He began taking lute lessons with his childhood friend, Joseph Iadone, and decided to pursue music more seriously. At the age of 20 Binkley enrolled at the University of Illinois to study music under Dragan Plamenac and Claude Palisca and graduated with honors in 1954. He then attended one year of graduate school at the University of Munich, followed by a year back at the University of Illinois where he worked toward a doctorate, but he never finished either degree. By 1959, he'd moved back to Munich and started the ensemble Studio der Frühen Musik with Nigel Rogers, Sterling Jones, and Andrea von Ramm. This group gave Binkley an opportunity to develop as an arranger and as a lute accompanist. They kept an extensive touring schedule, made more than 40 recordings, and won several European awards. Their visits to North Africa exposed Binkley to instruments and performance practices that remained unchanged for hundreds of years. He borrowed these sounds and ideas and applied them to their recordings, creating a unique synthesis of textures and timbres. The ensemble eventually disbanded in 1976 because they couldn't agree on their musical direction. Binkley then moved to California, where he followed his dream of homesteading, and in 1978 he taught at Stanford University. In 1979, he created the Early Music Institute at Indiana University, where he served as the director until his retirement in 1995. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi