Michael Schäffer (lutenist)

Michael Schäffer (11 November 1937 – 7 September 1978) was a German lutenist.

He was a pioneer in the rediscovery of French Baroque lute works and concertized widely as soloist and with chamber ensembles.

Schäffer was born in Cologne. He received a musical education, as a violinist and violist, with his father Kurt Schäffer at the Robert Schumann Hochschule.[1] His work as a guitarist generated an interest in the lute.[1] His formal education took place at Staatliche Musikhochschule in Cologne where he majored in lute.[1] His first academic appointment began in 1963 at Bergische Musikschule in Wuppertal.[1] In 1966 he was an original faculty member, lecturing on the lute, at the newly-created Institute for Early music at Rheinische Musikschule.[1] Schäffer was one of the first to abandon "guitar technique" on the lute: he experimented with traditional lute techniques, and their expressive possibilities and implications: e.g. hand positioning, thumb-index alternation, etc.[2]

He taught at the Hochschule für Musik Köln.