Charles Medlam is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 conductor and cellist

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

 also known for his performances on viola da gamba.

Medlam studied the cello in London, Paris, Vienna and Salzburg before becoming interested in the bass viol and early performing styles.

He studied with Maurice Gendron

Maurice Gendron

Maurice Gendron was a French cellist and teacher. He is widely considered one of the greatest French cellists of the twentieth century....

 at the Paris Conservatoire, Wolfgang Herzer at Vienna, then studied cello with Heidi Litschauer and performance practice with Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Nikolaus Harnoncourt is an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music from the Classical era and earlier. Starting out as a classical cellist, he founded his own period instrument ensemble in the 1950s, and became a pioneer of the Early Music movement...

 in Salzburg

Salzburg

-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...

.

Charles Medlam founded London Baroque with Ingrid Seifert in 1978. He plays baroque music on a Perugian cello made by Finnocchi in about 1720 and later music on a Lorenzo Ventapane made in Naples in 1806.

As well as ensemble work, Medlam has begun to popularise and record the solo gamba music of composers such as Hotman

Hotman

is a Japanese manga by Sho Kitagawa which was serialized in Young Jump magazine from 1994 to 1997. The manga has 15 volumes and after great success as a manga, has been transferred to a television series which has completed its second season...

, Dubuisson, Sainte-Colombe

Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe

Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe was a French composer and violist.It is speculated by various scholars that Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe was of Lyonnais or Burgundian petty nobility; and also the selfsame 'Jean de Sainte-Colombe' noted as the father of 'Monsieur de Saint Colombe le fils.This assumption...

 and De Machy. Medlam and his music are often heard on BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...

. His work has been favourably reviewed by BBC Radio 3, the Early Music journal and others.