Paul Beier is an American lutenist. He discovered his passion for the lute during adolescence through Julian Bream’s guitar recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach. He initially studied guitar but, after a year of study in Germany in 1973, became convinced of historically informed performance and shifted fully to the lute, later studying with Diana Poulton at the Royal College of Music in London, where he obtained his diploma as a lutenist in 1977. In 1981, he was invited to create a lute course at the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan, where he has since lived and taught. During the 1990s, he founded the Galatea Ensemble, of which he is director, and became one of the founding members of the Italian Lute Society. Beier has contributed to the rediscovery of early lute repertoire, notably through his recording of Michelagnolo Galilei’s "Primo Libro d’Intavolatura di liuto," which helped bring attention to the lute works of Galileo Galilei’s brother.
