Jaffee, Michael
Jaffee, Michael
Jaffee, Michael, American early-music performer and instrument builder; b. N.Y., April 21, 1938. He studied music at N.Y.U. (B.A., 1959; M.A., 1963), and learned to play the guitar. While still a student, he married Kay Cross (b. Lansing, Mich., Dec. 31, 1937), a keyboard player, in 1961. Their interest in early music led Michael to master the lute and Kay the recorder; they subsequently organized the Waverly Consort, a group dedicated to performances of music from the medieval and Renaissance eras using period instruments and costumes; the group made its formal debut at N.Y.’s Carnegie Hall in 1966. The two founders became highly proficient on a variety of instruments or copies, many of which they built themselves. The Waverly Consort toured extensively, becoming one of the most successful early-music groups in the U.S.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire