Alan Simcoe is a musician, teacher, performer, luthier, promoter, and instrument builder. Offering private lessons since 1991, he became a pivotal figure in the founding of the Island Music Teachers Guild (now Island Music Guild). He teaches and performs on a variety of instruments and in a wide range of styles, though he reserves his special passion for the music and instruments of the Renaissance. Alan co-founded the Island’s first early music program formed specifically to expose Islanders to European music of the 15th-17th centuries. Supported by a BIAHC grant, he hand-crafted both a lute and a viola da gamba, two Renaissance instruments for the Guild to make available to individuals to rent and further the program’s goal.
Alan performs on Renaissance period instruments with the Arundell Consort, and on contemporary guitar both in solo performances and with the Alan Simcoe Trio. Those who pass by the windows of his shop beside the Lynwood Theater can watch each magical step in his creation of a new stringed instrument and become inspired wherever they fall on the music appreciation scale.