R. P. Hale

R. P. Hale is an interdisciplinary artist and musician from a Mexican family that is noted for its long involvement in the arts. Born in Tucson, Arizona, he is a sixth-generation master calligrapher and illustrator, fifth-generation musician and third-generation wood engraver, printer and gilder. Mr. Hale is a harpsichordist, organist, builder of early keyboard instruments and period-design hammer dulcimers. He also makes and supplies marbleized papers for bookbinders, other artists and of course harpsichords.

He took his degrees in microbiology and organic chemistry and minored in scientific illustration at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and taught courses there in scientific illustration and technical photography for six years and also worked as a medical illustrator.

He began studying harpsichord at the University of Arizona with Dr. James Anthony for several years and then worked with a succession of mentors, including and especially the late Igor Kipnis.

He built his first harpsichord in 1976. In 1980, he resigned from the university to work as a carriage-smith and harpsichord maker and as a touring concert harpsichordist, finally moving to Concord, NH, in 1982.

Teaching early music and harpsichord, clavichord and hammer-dulcimer at St.Paul's School in Concord, NH and acting as the organist at St.Paul's Episcopal also in Concord he still finds time to conduct intensive research in the Hispanic and pre-Hispanic music of Mexico and Central America, and in the Mayan and Aztec calendars, learning the Aztec Náhuatl language in the process. He is also continuing with his other interests, especially in wood engraving, printing, marbling, and calligraphy. He has taught those arts, as well as music and traditional dance, at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, WV, since 1981; and he is involved in teaching English, Colonial and Scottish dance and music with the Pinewoods Camp in Plymouth, MA.

Working with museums throughout New England as a Colonial-era cultural reenactor many of Mr. Hale's performances are period reenactments at historic sites. As a professional harpsichordist and musical consultant Mr. Hale works closely with the ZHI factory in Stonington, CT in a wide range of fields.

Mr. Hale was recently cited by the Smithsonian Institution as one of this country's premier harpsichord/dulcimer makers and was the sole harpsichord maker featured in an Institute exhibit devoted to American instrument makers. The two dozen early-keyboard instruments he has built are all Zuckermann models originating from the Stonington shop.