Fred Lindeman

Fred Lindeman

Another sad death, this time the wonderful Dutch instrument maker and baroque music expert, Fred Lindeman. I met Fred when I was a viola da gamba student in Amsterdam in the mid 1980s. He looked after my instrument when I was there and I bought my strings from his shop. I continued to buy my strings from Fred when I returned to Australia – and have done for the past 30 years! Fred had even sent a beautiful Christmas card just a month ago.

We always had nice conversations over fax then email when I was buying my strings. I always left it to the last moment to order strings but Fred never worried about this. He just organised my package and would send it off the same day I put the order in. I cannot tell you how much I appreciated this!! Not one string was lost in the mail in 30 years. Fred never let me down. My strings always arrived in time for my concerts or recordings here in Australia. That is a pretty amazing achievement.

Fred’s book “The Rebirth of the Baroque Violin” was highly regarded and translated into English. It is a must for any early string player. Fred was a gentleman, polite and had a wonderful sense of humour. His knowledge of early string instruments was remarkable. I will miss him…

The Strad published an obituary at http://www.thestrad.com/dutch-luthier-frederick-lindeman-died-aged-84/

My condolences to Fred’s family.

Jenny Eriksson