Jacob Heringman moved to England in 1987, after completing an undergraduate degree in English and philosophy at Grinnell College in Iowa, to study the lute with Jakob Lindberg at the Royal College of Music. From 1989 to 1993, Jacob was a busy performer with most of the leading UK renaissance and baroque groups, after which time he gave up playing Basso Continuo altogether and began a phase focused entirely on the renaissance lute, and, in particular, on an intensive period of making solo recordings (Holborne, Bakfark and Waissel, Josquin, Jane Pickeringe’s Lute Book, The Siena Lute Book) and giving solo recitals. During those years he had occasional and invaluable lessons with the late Patrick O’Brien in New York. From 2001 to 2004, Jacob trained full-time as a teacher of the Alexander Technique, a practice which has deeply informed his music and his life generally.

In 2007, Jacob's family moved to North Yorkshire and began a slightly slower life, with an end to all work-related air travel and therefore to all intercontinental concert and teaching work. During the years between 2013 and 2020 he has worked intermittently on the present project, completed now in time for the 500th anniversary of Josquin’s death. Throughout all these years, a continuing theme has been my relationship with song (close partnerships with Catherine King, Clare Wilkinson, and John Potter, among others), and with vocal polyphony (especially that of Josquin). Current ensemble projects include the Alternative History Quartet (with John Potter, Anna Maria Friman, and Ariel Abramovich), Pellingmans’ Saraband (with Susanna Pell), a lute/vihuela duo with Ariel Abramovich, and lute song concerts with Clare Wilkinson and John Potter.