Ed Kottick

Builder, scholar, and designer, Dr. Ed Kottick has been associated with ZHI for more than 40 years, first as a kit builder, then as an agent, and now as the person who helps with its designs, writes its construction manuals, and handles its technical support.

Ed is the author of the classic The Harpsichord Owner's Guide and with George Lucktenberg, also wrote Early Keyboard Instruments in European Museums. For many years Ed made regular visits to the great European museums to examine, play, and listen to antique harpsichords, and is acknowledged as an expert in the history of the instrument. His latest book, A History of the Harpsichord, covers its entire 600-year history in nearly 600 pages, and comes with an accompanying CD of examples of various historical harpsichords.

Ed has also been involved in studying the acoustics of the harpsichord, and has articles on that subject published in Scientific American, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Early Keyboard Journal, and The Galpin Society Journal. Ed is retired Professor of Musicology from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, where he resides. http://kottick.com.