Bobbi Spooner Larson

I now live in Duluth, MN, right on the shore of Lake Superior. My husband, Dan, son Jakob, and I make historically-accurate medieval, Renaissance and Baroque stringed instruments--violins, lutes, guitars, etc., and the strings to use on them. We've done this since 1981, and you can see our instruments at gamutmusic.com. We came to Minnesota so I could get a degree in "Early Music," as it's called, at the College of St. Scholastica.

Fun fact: If you go see the new Russell Crowe "Robin Hood" movie, Alan-a-Dale plays on a lute that we made!

Best-remembered teachers:

the lovely English teacher, Miss Byrd, who used to put her hand on a boy's shoulder and lean over him (remember HER, guys?) and was so passionate about Shakespeare

Mrs. Lynch, vocabulary teacher, who used to have "group sessions" at her house with any students who wanted to come, and always wanted to talk about sex; she eventually ran off with a priest

Mr. Jones, the art teacher who hated anything "hippie" and gave me a D on the day-glo, pyschedelic San Francisco poster I made that won the city art contest!

The orchestra teacher, whats-his-name, who kicked me out of the orchestra for ordering a pizza one night when we were on tour

Best friends: Blake Reimer, of course, Jim Davis, Ron Coldiron, Susan Smith, Helen Parr, Nancy Cowley

Best memories: anything that involved drugs, sex and rock and roll

the day I met Blake Reimer (see his profile for elegantly-written story)

the great anti-war moratorium in the park

the time Scot Denko ran for class president and the principle pleaded with us on the intercom not to vote for him, disregarding the fact that he was a genius

graduation day, when Blake's car blew up and we ended up hitching to the auditorium in our caps and gowns, and my pink fuzzy house slipper on one foot because I had broken a toe at the party the night before

geez, I was a bad kid!

Had a beautiful daughter, went to Austin, joined a yoga ashram (thanks for the tip, Jim), married a guy in the ashram, went to San Francisco, where I had a son, Andrew, and found the true passion of my life--Renaissance music, and especially the lute. Moved the whole family to London, where I could study lute with the world's most famous lute teacher (no, you never heard of her!) for two years. Went back to Austin and traded in husband #1 for the world's most perfect man, Daniel Larson--a lute-maker, of course! Had son #2, Jakob, andf moved THAT whole family to Minnesota, so I could get an actual degree in music at a school that specialized in Early Music. Sadly, developed a disability that made it eventually impossible to play music, but now, here we are, making instruments and up to our ears (literally) in music. Jake also has a degree in recording engineering, so we are steeped in music!

anything before 1600