Multi-instrumentalist Hopkinson Smith.

One of the world’s pre-eminent lutenists, Hopkinson Smith plays a program of Bach at Bates at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 1, in the Olin Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Admission to this Olin Arts Alive concert is $12 for the general public, available at www.batestickets.com. Free tickets are available to the first 100 seniors or students; reserve by emailing olinarts@bates.edu.

For more information, please call 207-786-6135.

As Miami Herald reviewer Octavio Roca wrote, Smith’s “lute articulation is exquisite, his rhythmic control is as impressive as it is natural.

“Smith is also an intense, decidedly personal interpreter . . .”

Since the mid-1980s, Smith has primarily focused on solo music for plucked instruments, including the vihuela, Baroque and Renaissance lutes and guitars, and theorbo.

Smith gives concerts and master classes throughout Europe and in North and South America, and has made more than 20 solo recordings. He continues to rediscover and bring life to works that are among the most expressive and intimate in the entire domain of early music.

Smith concentrated in musicology at Harvard and continued his studies in Europe. In the mid-1970s, Smith was involved in the founding of the international early music ensemble Hesperion XX.